


Ansatsu Daigaku: King's Gambit

by AzureDragoonGX



Series: Beyond the Classroom: The Assassination University Saga [2]
Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Canon Continuation, Expanded Universe, F/M, Fanfiction Continuation, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 97,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21973480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzureDragoonGX/pseuds/AzureDragoonGX
Summary: Four years after the conclusion of the Assassination Classroom at Kunugigaoka Junior High School, all students of the final Class 3-E were brought back together after drifting so far apart to confront the remnants of the dangerous legacy left behind by their precious teacher, the Mach-20 yellow octopus Korosensei. Throughout the journey and the action, their faith in their futures were restored, through the help of forming new bonds, reinforcing old ones, and some good old run-ins with Death itself. While the Assassination University - as it had come to be known - would eventually conclude as well, this time they knew it didn't mean they'd be saying goodbye. Just as Korosensei hoped, his true legacy - his students - stayed close to get their futures in order, just a year and a half before their collective college graduations and dive right into their careers.This is a part of what happens after that. After graduation. After everybody's got their feet wet in their assorted industries.
Relationships: Akabane Karma/Original Character(s), Chiba Ryuunosuke & Hayami Rinka, Chiba Ryuunosuke/Hayami Rinka, Irina Jelavić & Karasuma Tadaomi, Irina Jelavić/Karasuma Tadaomi, Isogai Yuuma & Kataoka Megu, Isogai Yuuma/Kataoka Megu, Kayano Kaede & Shiota Nagisa, Kayano Kaede/Shiota Nagisa, Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Yada Touka/Original Character(s)
Series: Beyond the Classroom: The Assassination University Saga [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1386340
Kudos: 3





	1. Matter of Inevitability

**Author's Note:**

> The first sequel story to AssUniv, ladies and gentlemen! 
> 
> Hey everybody, Stephen here, and I've finally gotten around to bringing this story from DA to AO3! 
> 
> If that long description didn't already tell you, this story takes place after everything canon - College graduation had already been completed for the formerly Class 3-E, and the year later events of Roll Book Time had been done. A new world is upon the cast, and I'm happy to show you all what that might be comprised of.
> 
> I can promise you all, this is not going to be nearly as long as AssUniv. Everything has already been established, so now all we need is some main story! Hope you'll all enjoy it!
> 
> \- Azure ;)
> 
> P.S.: I'm sure you can already tell, but since the story is much more grounded and the character count is less, I've switched back to regular literature format. Bet many will like that!

-It is now the year 2023. Five years since the end of Assassination University. Three years since we've last seen most of the crew at Kunugigaoka Mountain cleaning up the old Class 3-E Schoolhouse, like they had agreed they would every year. Though many do show up in the Summer visits to this immortally endless establishment since, there has yet to be a time for the remnants, as a collective whole, to reunite. The members of Assassination Classroom, fixed or honorary, students and mentors, could not in spite of being older and wiser post-university, come together with the prime directive of time. Fate could be brewing one of those times where they might just be able to reason their return to form and fashion. Against an enemy that can cut their teeth in such a way few have ever before. Make the best assassins in the world break a sweat once more.-  
  
-Could it be this one?-  
  
=Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 10:46 P.M.=  
  
-In the outskirts of a former spot of the Olympics and within the valleys near Francis Peak, an isolated research organization building by the name of Kinesthesiz Biolabs rests. The private research company is a staple in the biochemical industry of America, perhaps known best for its breakthrough in discovering a chemical compound that can bio-degrade industry metal back into mineral components when left behind in forests and bodies of water, though they have also been known to make medicinal inhalants that provide those who have trouble using their mouths with a way to stay on top of their health needs.-  
  
-Of course, at this hour, there wasn't that many scientists within the facility, save for the very devoted. Instead, it was populated by no small amount of security, handling their very specially-engineered Malyuk assault rifles and flashlight-modded CZ P-09 pistols. Searchlights, security cameras (with night vision, of course), motion sensors, and even heat trackers were employed all over the site, meant to detect and locate just about any foreign entity, even a bird, if it came on company grounds.-  
  
A security guard sits in the gorilla position in front of roughly twenty-five monitors, boots on the table and writing into a small journal. Within the same room is two other sentinels operating the cameras, doing similarly menial tasks such as reading a courtship book or surfing his phone. Meanwhile about four others were playing cards around a metal round table, in front of another who was napping his recently lost salary away.  
Outside, the night was calm, with no rain or incredibly strong winds to interfere with the watch and patrol's observations. It made their job easy, essentially; nothing out of the ordinary, so nothing to report.  
But then, the motion tracker on the leftmost operator blares a few beeps. The sentinel puts aside his book and takes a look, at the cameras closest to it... Finding nothing but a nearby seagull. "What the Hell...?"  
"What is it?" The furthest poker player looked up towards his colleague.   
"Sensors picked up a lot of wavelengths, but I don't see anything..." The guard then turned on temperature filters, which didn't help. "Not even any unordinary heat signatures." He then put on a nearby headset and tuned it in to a certain frequency. "Dillon, Montgomery, we got a lot of motion on the Southeast corner, near you guys, but we have no visual on a suspect, if there is any. Care to check?" He requested.  
"Got it, Cotto." The one with "C. Dillon" strapped to the chest of his jacket affirmed, nodding to his backup to converge on the location. When they got really close, Montgomery proceeded up the ladder to check the Southeast wing's lower roof, while Dillon scoped the grounds underneath it. "Montgomery, Cotto, I don't have anything." Dillon announced, relaxing his aim after sifting the rifle's barrel through the last large plant in the region.   
"I do; it was a huge flock of seagulls." Montgomery retorted, directing the flashlight on them; most flew off when the beam scared them, though the guard had to shoo away the more resistant.   
"Hm, they must've been smelling the toppings one of the scientists drops every time he eats up there." Cotto relaxed for the first time.  
"Dr. Dunning? Knew he was an antisocial nutcase, but a sloppy eater too?" Montgomery radioed in.  
"Probably that's a part of how sheltered he is. He in tonight?" Dillon questioned.  
"As always. I won't tell him what you guys said, though. Thanks for the scope-out; proceed as normal." Cotto concluded, taking off the microphone.  
"By normal, he means a lame, boring night. The only difference is we don't get to kick back like the ones inside do." Montgomery spoke, descending from the wall to reunite with his ally.   
"Tell me about it. But our time will come. Don't you worry one bit - as far as the bosses think, we're doing an excellent job." Dillon assured.  
"Yeah, you right." Montgomery conceded, and they both continued on the path.  
  
-So Kinesthesiz Biolabs can detect a bird. Even tons of birds at once. But can it detect that... Plus something else?-  
  
After the duo turned two corners from the view of that perch, an architectural wall gap appears to bend _itself_ into a rigid "s" and then exits the scene entirely, leaving behind the real gap. The fragment then moves up the wall towards the taller roof, deeper into the facility. It abruptly spawns a touchscreen, depicting a progress bar that eventually fills out.  
Back inside Kinesthesiz Biolabs, the operators continue to pay half-attention to the screens in front of them, which proves unfortunate for them when they give brief visual glitches in sequence before returning to normal. The rightmost sentinel notices a disturbance, but dismisses it just as quickly and gets back to his mobile device.  
"Chairman sir, the cameras, motion trackers, and heat sensors have been bugged. You are clear to proceed as planned." A Swedish voice spoke into a microphone of her own. She was situated at an abandoned truck depot, on the other side of the Western hills neighboring the Biolabs.  
"Thank you Nylen." The infiltrator expressed gratitude before ending his embrace of the nearby wall and deactivating the Octo-Ink of his suit. His hood and mask also collapsed, revealing his face, belonging to one of only two in the world: Kazuhiro Kato, or his younger cousin Kazuhiko. He manipulated a small dial on the InReTs screen on his forearm to review all of the different CCTV monitors within the facility. "Miho and Bellamy, escape backup is all set?" He whispered into his communications device.  
"On standby." Bellamy asserted, clad in SAS marine gear and rising out briefly from the waters below the facility's cliffs on the south side.   
"Waiting on you, Chairman-ani." Miho declared, prone on top of a hill from the Biolabs' East, watching the edifice with a set of modified thermal binoculars. By her side is a fallen Yamaha YZ450F dirtbike and a Shark EVO Lithion Helmet.  
"Satoshi, getaway's good?" Kato moved on.  
"I'm leaving the engine hot." Satoshi phoned in, standing in a cave underneath the Biolabs and next to a racing boat, connected to a winch-launching ramp pointed towards the ocean past the shores.  
"Very good. Then we are clear to continue this mission. The objective: retrieve or recover information on a bioweapon described by Ministry intel that is being developed by Kinesthesiz in this particular facility. Start." Kato closed comms, climbing swiftly up to the second roof, and vaulting over several raised metal tubes before reaching what he was looking for; a small electronics box, which resembles that of a regular junction box until the contents are revealed to be a wall-mounted terminal and a signal transmitter. _Aha, so that's their activation number..._ Kato thinks to himself after a brief bout of hotwiring, closing the box and dropping down to reach the closest entrance.  
What followed next was several minutes of Kato scoping the surroundings with his Kimber Mk. III (yes, now it's Mk. III) in center axis relock stance, making sure there were no silent robot sentinels lying around. With the layout of the Biolabs coded to his tactical contact lens, he purposefully strides through the lobby and adjoining halls, and into the private employee sections. This is where he meets his first batch of opposition, in the form of two internal patrol guards. Having been without any disturbances for so long, the sentinels were rather lackadaisical with their job, with one twirling their lit torch by the string and chatting with the other. Kato slid underneath a secretary desk and trained aim at the knee level, waiting for them to either turn his way or pass by. Indeed they unintentionally chose the latter, and when the doors stayed closed and decibel levels went to below twenty, Kato got out of cover and moved on.  
The next passage required Kato get past a set of strong doors, clearly fitted with an electromagnetic lock. No doubt, Kato could use a blowtorch found on one of the scientist's tables and heat up the lock to the point that the lock gets demagnetized, but Kato sees through his goggle faculties and realizes that people are already coming. Therefore, the infiltrator takes a perch just above the top sill of the door, waiting for the guard to pass through. Then within the time frame for the door to naturally transition from open to close, Kato swings in, taking up the top section of the other side of the threshold and giving a quick scan around him to ensure nobody else saw that.   
Nobody did thankfully, and so Kato wall-ran to the next corridor he would need to pass; this time, there was extra security in the form of two door-bouncers. With discretion no longer good enough, diversion now has to come into play. It arrives in the form of using a Throw Voice that takes up the footstep sound that Kato recorded while standing above the previous door, and planting it on the far side of an office table. Kato gets into position on the ceiling directly above the two and activates the gadget.  
Both guards heard the foreign noise and one nods to the other to go and investigate. The one advancing whips out his CZ railed tac-light to get a better view of the situation, not realizing that he was about to walk into a Stun-Net, instantly knocking himself out. The other guard, witnessing his colleague fall face-first, is stunned and goes for his shoulder-mounted radio, but Kato (hanging from the ceiling through a Pivoting Wire Wrest) retrieves it first. The freaked-out sentinel naturally looks up, just in time to take a looping palm strike to the chin, which knocks him out. Kato keeps hold of the man's shirt, allowing him to fall gently to the ground and not alerting anybody who could be on the other side. He compensates himself for this courtesy by claiming the keycard on the other side of his chest for the door.   
Now with the impunity he needed, Kato now was free to proceed through the door and continue his work, which included one last major checkpoint before he reached the main experimental rooms. Kato parkoured through the upper sections of the testing and packaging section until he got to the other side once more, and found one sole guard watching the door and the stairs to the second upper floor that he needed to get up to. He decides on the classic Octo-Ink approach this time, and easily slides across an adjacent wall to begin sleeper-holding the sentinel to sleep, but not before noticing a wandering guard coming around the corner too. Not risking over-exerting the hold and accidentally suffocating the man to death, Kato instead picks up his adversary and walks over to said corner, and when the second comes into view, he throws a Shock-Pad at him, nearly-instantly knocking him out. Kato finishes incapacitating the first by attaching a Pivoting Wire Wrest to him, with the second hook attaching to the other and retracting the cable, causing faces to smack into each other; Kato carries the sandwich of men to the seclusion of a nearby corner, seizes yet another essential keycard, and proceeds onwards and upwards, literally.  
Now Kato was in the prime section of the facility that likely held either the information on the bioweapon, samples of said bioweapon, or both. Without the several hours of time necessary to comb through every isolated lab room, along with their chemicals, and terminals, Kato would have to take a conscious scientist still within this department and encourage him to the right location. Kato found a potential candidate in the third facility he combed; a lab-coat who had his back turned to the infiltrator while looking through his trifocal microscope. Kato knocked on the ballistic-resistant glass, gaining the researcher's attention, and presented a screened device that read: "Show me where the bioweapon is; You know which one I'm talking about." Just to be sure the scientist wasn't going to play smart, Kato pulls out his Kimber again and puts its barrel right on the glass. The screen swiped to reveal more words: "Yes, this gun can go right through this."  
But before the scientist could answer, Kato looks to further into the assorted labs and sees a new guard coming from behind the obstructions... Only, a little different from the others. Namely, being roughly seven feet tall and definitely hiding some major muscle behind his uniform. Kato curiously tilted his head at the new adversary, who copied the action. He finally gave a smile to the impending situation, putting down his Kimber and firing a Wire Wrest from wall to wall that pierced through the loop of the only door to the lab, preventing the scientist's escape. The guard approved, turning off his microphone and tossing it aside. To make it even more fair, Kato unzips the upper half of the KAM AtTac Armor and flings it to the window, exposing him to any damage he may take... And his "Miyamoto" irezumi, or course.   
With the stage set, both combatants get into stance; for the guard, a simple hands-near-cheeks, leaning-forward boxing pose, while Kato moved into his "Risen Samurai" stance, complete with a slight back lean with left fist outstretched while right fist covers the far cheek.  
  
=JUDGEMENT's OST "My Own Style" plays.=  
  


# 加藤和彦VSセキュリティガードKinesthesiz

## Kazuhiko Kato - Chairman of the Kato Alliance

### "Nothing personal; you're just in my way!"

## VS

## Kinesthesiz Security Guard

  
The guard takes the lead, charging in with a loaded right straight. Kato tilts his head again, albeit the other way, narrowly avoiding the attack, allowing his opponent to fly past him; Kato makes even more distance with a back kick right at the man's hip, forcing him to take another step. Feeling momentarily humiliated, the guard refocuses and reengages his centerline on Kato, taking slower, but sill aggressive steps to close the gap. When he felt close enough, the sentinel went for a left low side kick to trip up his smaller enemy. Kato too saw this coming and pushed off his right leg, pivoting around the blow. The guard was surprised at the evasion, but felt confident with Kato showing his back while he remained in front of him, and attempted a left rabbit hook.  
But as soon as Kato had finished spinning to that side, he spun back and crouched to avoid another devastating strike. This motion also wound up a spinning backfist to the cheek of his taller opponent... Which didn't do nearly as much as the kick did. Nevertheless, Kato wasn't fazed, moving to the backside of a right cross and riposting with a side right elbow to the nose. The guard hardly was deterred, now going for a left overhead with a diagonal trajectory. Kato ducked low and to the right, letting the strike just pass him on his left, in a successful bid to also wind up another elbow - a reverse spinning elbow, to be precise, again smashing into the nose.  
The second impact made the guard feel his schnoz this time, which was all the hesitation Kato needed to capitalize with a rising shoulder tackle, aiming for the chin; the guard looked down, however, and so Kato sufficed for the mouth. He wasn't finished though, for his left elbow was also ready and gave an upwards smash that struck the far cheek. The Chairman then made out some distance with a skipping side kick to the abdominals, which forced the sentinel step back several times.  
Now really angry, the guard pounded both of his fists, cracking their knuckles, and ran back in, another right hook in mind. Kato blocks the strike with a pointed elbow straight to the forearm of the attacking arm, which stops it dead, and also makes a swift set-up point for a back knuckle strike to the forehead of the security guard. Kato tries to continue the combination with a front-leg roundhouse kick, but the guard pushes it down. His one-two is similarly avoided, with Kato Keysi-blocking the left hook and Dempsey Rolling the other, so the former resolves for a roundhouse kick of his own, which Kato checks with his affected leg. Frustrated, his fists open up and he dives low for the lifting double-leg takedown, though instead of slamming him to the ground, Kato is thrusted into the nearby ballistic glass.  
The collision is actually so great, that it produced a crack crater almost eighty centimeters wide in diameter. The guard then tosses Kato by his left arm into the other side glass, which makes superficial dents by comparison. The taller competitor wastes no time getting back into the fray, throwing more punches. Kato avoids them all so that they make their own mark on the reinforced transparency behind him, which only makes the guard resort back to grapples, clutching Kato by the clavicles and blasting the latter with a headbutt. Kato winces at the attack but recovers to throw one of his own, which elicits a similar reaction. The guard tries again, but Kato blocks it by holding a palm out to his opponent's forehead mid-swing and catching it. The neck bending forward also half-sets up the Thai clinch which Kato locks in, on the balls of his feet to keep cinched. He throws some standing knees to the outer thighs of the sentinel, as well as some leaping ones to reach the face.  
The guard rejects this and lifts Kato up, hoping to slam his spine into the upper light scaffolding. Kato blocks this attempt by reaching out for the fluted metal pieces first, and using his other hand to hammer fist the guard on the cranium. Still hanging, Kato swings for a front kick with extra momentum on the sentinel's chest. Kato uses the extra distance for a 540 kick, but the guard dashes in close and catches Kato with his leg still up. In this compromised position, the sentinel falls back, delivering an exploder suplex to Kato. But he also maintains a hold of Kato's upper body putting the Chairman back upright and locks in the Full Nelson. Kato grunts slightly before slowly overpowering the hold, much to the guard's disbelief. With his arms lowered, Kato takes it into the keylock of his own arm and drags him over, the guard now on his knees in front of him.  
Maintaining hold of his close wrist, Kato uses it for a short-arm snap kick to the temple of the guard's head. Kato still keeps grip to twist it back, making the guard kneel upright, just in time to face another instep from a roundhouse. Kato hopes to repeat it, but the guard catches the ankle, and quickly falls into a grapevine ankle lock. Again, Kato suffers a few seconds of the hold before using leverage with his free leg to break the criss-cross, forcing his taller opponent to reposition for the hold. The precious seconds wasted not wrenching was just what Kato needed, putting his free leg on top of his own; the extra weight causes the guard to let go of his ankle. With his feet between the latter's own legs, Kato performs a sideways split, hitting both lower limbs and forcing him to commit to a split as well. Reacting to his outstretched hamstrings, Kato spun along the ground for a low-angle spinning hook kick to the temple, which perfectly made its mark.  
The guard taking more than a few seconds to get back up was his mistake, as Kato gets into the full mount from a Naoko-inspired handspring. He had free rein to deliver several forearm smashes and 12-6 elbows before the guard bridged and pulled Kato off. The Chairman rolled upon impact with the ground and charged right back with a sliding knee, which was blocked by a rising X-block from guard. Said sentinel kept the raised leg in his hold, seizing the other and initiating a giant swing into the same ballistic glass between them and the researcher.  
Kato overlapped his hands on top of his crown to nullify the impact of the collision, also angling the entry point so that his feet fell onto the wall. He quickly bounces off from it, propelling himself into a shoulder tackle to the taller enemy's abdominal section. The guard merely slides back, and gives an elbow of his own to the Chairman's back, setting up for a powerbomb lift. Despite the stunning strike, Kato senses the grapple coming and hugs the leg, making the guard trip up as he lifts both the infiltrator and his lower limb up. Though the guard manages to reposition himself before falling onto his back from the blunder, that was all the time Kato needed to wriggle free of the gutwrench, and swiveling over to behind the guard and pulling him back with a Schoolboy roll-up. A vintage transition for the Chairman, he immediately followed it up with a superkick to the guard's chin as he rolled back into a kneeling stance.  
The kick took almost everything out of the guard, who struggled to remain on fours. Kato circled to the left side of his fallen adversary and then jumped off of his upper back, gaining some height for the coup de grace - a falling knee smash to the nape. The modified curb stomp knocks the burly guard out and ends the contest.  
  
=OST ends.=  
  
Kato rises back up, hardly fatigued and having only superficial cuts over his body (which were also healing incredibly rapidly; the lacerations roughly several millimeters long miraculously closed). Kato stepped back to the war-torn glass, where the terrified scientist remained, and pulled out the screen of reading. He was about to show it to the researcher again, but then Kato's mind flickered, and he put up a finger prompting the latter to wait a bit. He then proceeded to fiddle with the device and then slammed it onto the transparent wall, which now read: "If you don't want to end up like that guy, open the door and show me where IT is." There was even an ASCII arrow that pointed to exactly where the fallen body was.  
Knowing better than to defy at this point, the scientist unlocked the lab room. He kept his hands up and waited for Kato to enter. "The bioweapon, the only data left is in a terminal in laboratory G. The furthest back, then second from left corridor."  
"Thank you." Kato nodded, then looked around the area before back at him. "This carnage here; do you know who did it?" He asked him.  
The researcher frantically shook his head.  
"Can you describe his appearance?" The Chairman questioned.  
He once more denied.  
"Or what he wanted?" He interrogated.  
Again, he refused.  
"Will you speak of anything that happened this night?" The Yakuza concluded.  
"No!" The scientist spoke.  
The infiltrator moved in close, gesturing for the keycard around the researcher's neck. The latter willing handed it over, also confirming it would work on the last door. "Good." Kato returned to his cheerful side and departed, politely closing the door behind him. He cuts the corner, not noticing the scientist slide down the countertop with anxiety.  
Kato traversed the halls without any more opposition or foreign eyes watching him, until finally reaching lab G. Kato slid the card down the lock and entered the room, immediately going for the main desktop within. He inserted a USB-T drive into the machine and, using his InReTs, Kato cracked the local OS in a mere dozen seconds. Kato then started a searching algorithm, copying any files that have any mentions of a certain keyword; to ensure his access doesn't get terminated due to power shutdown, Kato takes out a mobile power cell and attaches it to the machine as well.  
While the algorithm continues to sift through the computer, Kato scopes the rest of the lab, seeing if any chemicals pertaining to the bioweapon he is searching for could be still here, without any success. Not in the trash, fridges, cupboards, or racks... But there was one little clue still there, for when Kato gave an EM scan of the room, he detected an active switch below the sink. He proceeded to press it, causing a section of the side of the island table to open up.   
_What could this be..._ Kato thought to himself as he walked over to the cavity, and discovering a gas canister. Realizing what this could imply, he immediately scanned the area again for gas composition, and finding it to be laden with an odorless compound for rocket fuel.   
Right on cue, Kinesthesiz security guards, Malyuk rifles in hand, all converge on the laboratory, training the barrels on the glass. "Freeze! You've got nowhere to go!" The presumed captain announced.   
Kato tensed up over not anticipating this trap.  
The captain then spoke to his comms. "Boss, we found the infiltrator; he's stuck inside lab G. What shall we do?"  
The computer in the lab beeped to signal the end of the search; Kato took an aside glance at the screen to see the folder window of his drive... Which didn't have anything! _What the Hell?!  
_"End him by any means necessary." A disembodied voice answered.  
"With pleasure." The captain let go of his walkie talkie and moved up to the glass, taking something out from his back containers.  
Kato looks back at him with bewilderment.  
  
-Outside...-  
  
"Radio silence is boring..." Satoshi was now within the boat, kicking back on the top part of the controls.  
"It's been thirteen minutes. Bellamy, Miho, it's time for extraction." Kat noted.  
"Of course, Kat." Miho hopped onto her two feet and picked up her dirtbike.  
"Roger." Bellamy walked onto shore and prepared to set up a vertical, motorized climbing rope that would allow him to scale the huge sheer surface. But before either could get very far, the Biolabs suddenly exploded on the Northeast side; the same side where the high-risk laboratories, and where Kato, was. Bellamy fell on his back five meters (though he rolled through on the sandy shore to nullify most of the impact, while Miho had only just kickstarted the engine.  
Satoshi ran out from the cave nearby the shore to witness with disbelief the facility engulfed in flames.   
Katalina heard the faraway detonation. "Um guys, arson wasn't in the plan. What's going on over there?"  
Miho couldn't believe it either; her pupils dilated to a near-microscopic level. She slowly pressed on the mic button of her comms. "Kato? Kato-ani, are you there?" She inquired.  
Satoshi, Bellamy, and Kat, who all were tuned to the same frequency, remained silent.  
  
-Meanwhile, in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo...-  
  
At the headquarters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, two sets of people, identified by their different uniform choice (on one hand, power-suits, and on the other, military formalwear), step out from the main entrance. The leader of the pack of business suits is revealed to be a young lady, presumably in her mid-twenties, with warm brown hair kept in a ponytail (ends reach her lower shoulder blades), and, ahem, impressive dimensions.  
The leader of the red-collars offered a handshake to the woman. "Are you certain that you can supply all of our nautical lines with your patented EM-controlled firearms within the year, programmed only to operate with our given codes?"  
The woman smiled. "A year? Mighty generous of you. I reckon distribution can be concluded within eight months, with four of those being used through update implementation, two for evaluation of spec-ops preferences, and two for final testing. But if you insist, we have an accord." She accepted the hand.  
The FA officer couldn't help a chuckle after they complete the respectful gesture.  
The lady noticed the snicker. "Forgive me, but what's so humorous about this situation?" She inquired.  
"Nothing to you or your company's detriment, Miss. I am just at awe. You have certainly talked an amazing game. I, in fact, could use six of you in my other front-end operations." The dignitary sounded off his impressment.  
"Longstanding collaboration with the Ministry of Defense will do that to anybody, kind sir." She answered.  
"I don't deny it. But experience can be conveyed in multiple different ways, and quite honestly... I wasn't expecting these talks to be so pleasant."  
"Sir, with all due respect," She bowed before the next sentence fragment. "I would daresay you have been spending too much time conversing with the wrongest people overseas." She smiled after speaking.  
"Excuse me, Miss?" The official sounded dumbfounded by the response.  
"I mean, you could speak to your subordinate there, and he would respond with volumes about the lack of drama that is had between Kato Arms and R&D and their dealing partner." She looked to the associate.  
He turned to the backup that she motioned towards. "Is that true?"  
The uniform merely nodded, biting his lower lip all the while.  
"Why didn't you say anything?" He lifted up a hand.  
"Sir, you were very obstinate about certain parts of this discussion you wanted to get through, to the point that you denied the thought of disregarding them." The colleague defended his stance.  
"Oh... Right..." He scratched the back of his head.  
"I appreciate that the governing body that is keeping our domestic lands clean and safe is doing their best to anticipate shifty situations... But they should also realize that presumptions can hurt. We can assure you, beyond your doubts, that we are very set on making this partnership work. And we will pull all of our weight to do it. We only ask that you do the same when the time comes." She bowed again.  
"I suppose the best Chief Officers are snowflakes too." He bowed as well. "Then you have our commitment as well."  
She repeated her smile as well. "Excellent. We will speak again soon."  
"We will await it." The FA faculty wave them goodbye.  
The team led by the young woman reach their vehicle arrangement at the nearby driveway, and proceed to exit the grounds. When they've covered at least one block, the lady prompted a flatscreen to appear from behind two shifting walls; when turned on, a live video chat commenced. "Kazuhiro! It's done." She greeted and informed pouring herself a glass of celebratory champagne; Dom Perignon 2009, to be specific.  
"Yada. That's excellent to hear. For how much?"  
"Two billion USD. A good thirty percent will go to the outreach enhancement project, and another five percent to boost R&D, but that still leaves a hefty amount of revenue and an augmented web of trust between us and four of the Japanese Ministries." Yada announced.  
"Damn, a cool two bil? now you truly joined the club of people who are better businesspeople than Kazuhiko."   
"Heheh, without inflation I'd be on top of that club right now, mind you."  
"Hey, Japanese gov is good and all, but no amount of paper measures up to NATO. And you still got a ways to go before you can handle overseas business."  
"You know somebody who wouldn't say that." She teased.  
"He's not the one who has a Ph.D in Economics."  
"Very well. How is it over in Germany, by the way?"  
"Pretty amazing. Industry is fantastic, food's always well done, even in the taverns, and HK seems quite delighted to have a longtime former business partner keeping tactical interests alive."  
"That sounds like something else worth cheering to." Yada held out her stem glass again.  
Kazuhiro scoffed, mimicking the action, before his phone put aside caught his attention. "Oh hold on; hm, looks like Kazuhiko sent us a message!"  
Yada's smile shrinks, with her now taking a look of puzzlement.  
"Uh, if you're keen to find out now-" Kazuhiro tried clearing the air.  
"No worries, Kazuhiro. I'll listen in later tonight." She reassured him.  
"Very well. In a few minutes, I gotta tend to another business deal with a local defense software company, so I'll sign off here. Talk to you soon, okay? CFO and COO need to keep in close touch all the time."  
"I don't intend on going anywhere from this, Kaz. See you soon." She ended the stream, resolving to looking out her passenger window.  
Eventually, the stretch drops her off on the same sidewalk in Minato as a white-black Lykan Hypersport, which Yada strolls over to. But before she lays her hand on it, she looks to her side towards a dark corridor, hearing the struggles of another young lady in the distance, which were being drowned out by the murmurs of some male hooligans. Yada removes the wedge heels of her shoes, bending the soles back to parallel, and discreetly walks deeper into the alley.  
After hugging her fair share of brick walls, she eventually finds out what the commotion is about; a lone high schooler having played hooky for the day (judging by her relaxed ribbon tie and rolled-up sleeve), walks through the wrong section of town and runs into a four-strong bunch of punks belonging to a small outfit that recently surfaced.   
"My my, little miss, you're quite a way from home." One hoodlum proclaimed.  
"S-stop this! Let me leave!" She stammered through her words.  
"That'll take some doing, girlie." Another thug asserted.  
"Tell you what; give up your purse, and your choice of an accessory above or below the belt, and we'll piss off." A third proffered.  
The schoolgirl (and Yada) realize what he means by the latter request, and reacts with disgust. "No way!" She retorted.  
"I guess we're going to have to instill some compliance, guys." The first stated, taking up his polished baseball bat onto his shoulders.  
"G-get back!" She implored.  
Yada looks to her right handed bracelet, forming a fist with the adjoining hand, and waving the notion aside. Instead, she resolves for a scan through her environment, finding a discarded lead pipe. She then silently steps out of cover, knowing that the schoolgirl will be the only one who notices her. It seems to be rather unfortunate at first, as even the girl's refocus on Yada prompted them to look the same way.  
But that was the idea. Immediately, Yada launches the pipe at the second furthest aggressor; the metal strikes him square on the temple, knocking him out. "Hit the jewels!" She ordered the girl to do.  
The deliberate truant complied, noticing the closest to her was still focused on Yada, and threw an instep to the low-hanging fruit, which left him writhing around on the ground.  
Yada limboed underneath the closest's clothesline, gripping the forearm as it passed by her, and transitioning it into an arm wringer, forcing the man to bow. Yada repositioned herself to then deliver a running knee that sandwiched his head into the stone wall, putting him down for the count as well. Yada sees the final perp charging in, and dives low, catching him with a a rebound single-arm leg trip that forces a back roll; Yada finishes him with a lightning-fast roundhouse kick that strikes at his brain stem, temporarily shutting down all neural function in the area.  
With the drama over, Yada looks back to the schoolgirl. "You alright, missy?" She walked over to her.  
"Um, yes. Thank you for your assistance. I wouldn't know what I would've done without you." She bowed hesitantly, clearly still traumatized by what she had just experienced.  
"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to you." Yada assured the younger female. "But you really shouldn't be here, especially at this hour. See why school matters? Otherwise you're going to end up like these guys."  
"Well, I certainly don't want that..." She looked around at the fallen mess.  
"Good to hear. Now, you don't have to tell anyone of what happened here; this lesson matters only to you anyways. Take it to heart, and use it to ensure you always attend school, okay? If not... Well, you just might have to find out what you'll do next time." She suggested.  
"Right. It won't happen again. No, ma'am. Never." She shook her head rather convincingly.  
"I'll give you a drive home if you're still very shaken. You can trust me." She offered.  
"That would also be very appreciated - thank you." The younger one accepted.  
Within the hour, Yada brought the high schooler home, and was then free to head back herself. She still maintains a penchant for New York lofts, though she has taken up a newer, larger, version from the one last seen several years ago, and in a much more upscale neighborhood.   
The young lady tossed her car keys, KAM keycard, necktie, and purse with deceptive precision into a small display platter. _Well, duty still calls, even from the security of home._ She thought to himself as she unbuttoned her suit and moved to her study.  
  
-Several hours later...-  
  
It became night before long for Tokyo, replacing the cloudless, sunny skies with rays of moonlight. Yada had taken a break from her laptop to work out with her personal gym equipment, from pull-ups on a raised bar to leg lifts against thirty kg weights. After that, she prepare for a good night's rest, which included washing up, changing out of her fitness gear into a satin kimono (briefly revealing the small of her back and shoulder blades to be restricted by RockTape), and shifting hairstyles from a high ponytail to a three-strand single-back braid.  
"Wow, you got to school the suits from Foreign Affairs? That's awesome!" Kimura pumped a fist in front of his camera.  
"Another ministry bites the dust." Yukimura, holding her phone to her face, one-lined.  
"Hey, come on guys; it's our infrastructure we're deriding. The same one that Karma, Naoko, and Terasaka are working for." Kataoka, sitting at her news station vanity, reminded them.   
"More power to us then; they don't get to make jokes." Nakamura, lying like a French girl on her bed, spoke to her laptop. It was extra fitting, because currently she was in France (Brest, to be specific).   
Isogai appeared from over Kataoka's shoulder. "Even you have to admit that the strides they've taken for the public's sake have resulted in significant improvements." He noted; his left hand slid down Kataoka's same shoulder, until it finally met her own reverse-palm; metal bands on their fingers caressed with each other at that point.  
"Well, we know who to compliment for that." Kimura stated, before bowing. "Yada."  
"Ah, Karasuma-sensei as Chief of Air Staff, along with Naoko and Irina-sensei has been bridging the gap rather well too. They also have helped to finalize a formal agreement to assist in drug busts and counter-terrorist operations overseas." Yada downplayed the praise coming her way.  
"You sure it isn't his way of maintaining a parole leash on a certain double-K?" Nakamura teased.  
Yada sighed with a hint of pleasantry. "Even they can admit Kato's doing a lot of good out there..." She refocused. "Anyone with common sense can." She finalized her statement.  
"A Katagi working for a Yakuza-ridden company, engaging in perfectly legal business, generating billions of bucks, by providing guns that work only when the owner wants them to. Can somebody tell me where common sense lies in all of that?" Yukimura jested on.  
"Very funny. I'll deliver a punchline to you in just a minute; just sit tight." The not-so-disciplined businesswoman, at least in this instance, quipped in kind, in her most forcefully kind tone as possible.  
"Okay, okay, let's simmer down, the both of you." Isogai repeatedly lowered his hands in a settling manner.  
"Ah, these conversations... They really put warmth in this cold heart of mine." Nakamura clutched the skin before her mentioned organ.   
"Controlled doses, Nakamura-san. Or else they lose novelty." Yukimura cautioned.  
"Hm, that reminds me, I best hop off; a chat I haven't had in a bit is up next." Yada moves her cursor towards the "leave chat" option.  
"Oh, is it that time?" Kimura looked at his watch.  
"All confidence, huh sister? It's what won him over last time." Nakamura brings her head closer.  
"Duly noted; thank you." Yada signed off with that, closing all their windows with one press. _We were actually supposed to have this chat earlier. Not like him to be late... But something in me doesn't seem so surprised that this happened..._ Nevertheless, she briefly waded her fingers through the sides of her scalp's hair with relative anxiousness, instinctively turning on her plasma screen to let isolated commercial voices calm her down; also in anticipation for Kataoka and Isogai's anchor performance. When she finally felt ready, she proceeded to switch servers to a more private, more secure connection, and was about to join, until...  
  
-Ba-Beep!-  
  
Yada recognizes the noise as a K-Odec private message alert. She looks to the bottom right corner of her screen, finding it to be from Kazuhiro. When she clicks on it and initiates a conversation, the first post is a hyperlink. She clicks on that in turn, which brings up a Denver Post online article with the title: "Kinesthesiz burns! Utah-based research facility devastated by terrorist pyromania!"   
Immediately, Yada puts a hand to her mouth in horror of what this might entail, daring to continue reading.


	2. Personal Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So an operation in the States goes a little awry, and news arrives for the Alliance crew all the way back home at Japan. What's the fallout going to be once Yada realizes what has transpired over at Salt Lake City?

-Ten minutes later...-  
  
"So, you're absolutely certain, Tsuchiya?"  
"Yes, I'm absolutely certain that Kazuhiko is still active." Satoshi, flatly toned as he always is, confirmed.  
"Oh, thank the Lord..." Kazuhiro slouched back on his study chair, visible during their three-way video chat.  
"I take it Kazuhiko left a sort of voiced or video message to relay this assurance to you?" Yada remained focused on the situation.  
"Indeed he did. Exactly four minutes after the start of the conflagration, Kato uploaded this sound." Satoshi proceeded to press a button on his device, resulting in said sound being replayed... Metal tapping, of various lengths and seemingly random pattern.  
"Hm, Morse Code..." Kazuhiro identified the audio, and remained silent until the final beat. "He said 'I LIVE'!" He discerned.  
"Affirmative, Kazuhiro. We've gathered as much as well." Satoshi stopped the clip. "However, despite confirming his personal status, Kato has yet to resurface. It seems as though he is immediately continuing his pursuit of an enemy he had hoped to corner in the Biolabs, without any time to waste." The Captain continued on.  
"Leaving everyone else behind again, huh?" Yada blurted out.  
"I'm sure that if my cousin believes so, this situation is incredibly urgent and worthy of him running off so quickly." Kazuhiro refocused for an inquiry. "But Satoshi, are we really not given any clue as to where he's conducting his next search?"  
"None. It's actually rather unprecedented of him." Tsuchiya claimed.   
"Nah, there's no doubt he did, and we're just not looking hard enough yet." Yada stated. "Tsuchiya, I understand you and Miho are not truly focused right now after so much shock; you've got to get some rest and collect all of your thoughts. For now, please send me the unedited audio file; I want to run my own tests through it to see if I can find the lead. Also have his case of research material during the previous week delivered to my doorstep by six A.M. tomorrow." She requested.  
"I won't say no, Yada, but do you know where you want to start?" The Alliance Captain requested affirmation.  
"No idea. But that's where all the fun is, right?" Yada assured him.   
"Ah yes; my sworn blood-brother has mentioned that a number of times before. Anyways, it's being uploaded now..." Satoshi noted.  
And so for the next two days, Yada investigated the material, hoping to find some lead to go on. With it consuming all of her time and interest, she has cancelled most of her meetings, and left most of her business work during that interval to Nakanishi, allowing her all the opportunity to remain at her loft and get it done. But after almost forty hours cumulative of searching...  
  
-Two days later...-  
  
Yada, at her study desk during a new night, scans through a three-page statistics packet, fitted with personal inkings and sticky notes. When she finds their data unsatisfactory, she crumples them up into little balls and tosses them into her nearby garbage bin, without looking. Though it was perfectly shot and would land dead in the very center of the metallic cylinder, the mountain of discarded paper already there made the projectile bounce away out of it.  
She didn't get very far, obviously.  
Yada now clutched her head with slight frustration. _What are you hoping we'll find...?_ She continued to cogitate. After clapping her temples to regain concentration and stretching her back by reaching above and behind her, she then replayed the audio clip several more times, finding nothing particularly peculiar about the beginning and middle of it... But when she reached the very end, things changed. Yada seems to notice that there is a foreign sound in that it did not come from Kato or his device that makes it into the recording. _That sounds, like some sort of animal?  
_Yada cropped the file to the final second and filtered away the last metal tap Kato's machine gave, so that she could get a better, crisper take of the fragment. From there, she found out exactly what that noise was. _A cougar's yelp! And not one out of threat, but a reaction to harm! There is an intentional secondary noise that humans cannot hear because it's out of our audio range, but animals can!  
_Hastily, Yada's eyes widened at the revelation. She pulled out a personal manual from underneath a pile of notebooks and folders that she had already gone through earlier, recalling that he had jotted down similar details before. _The enumerations of neurocognitive thoughts Kato had written out to begin the work to modify the Vocal Smartguns I proposed earlier. Huh, maybe he's not forgotten... Regardless, it's no wonder the rest of his team hasn't picked up on this clue; to them, it would just seem as though a random animal was running away from their boss._ Yada deciphered each batch of isolated, inaudible noises throughout the entire file into the specific number that Kato gave them. It indeed took some doing to codify...  
_Ugh, there's the most minuscule difference he observes between 43 and 206!_ She rubbed her eyebrows with frustration.  
But she eventually did crack it, with the list of integers lined up before her on a notebook. _Okay, so far so good, but what do these numbers all tell someone? What do they tell me?_ Yada slouched back into her chair, deep in thought once more. _Well, Kato is trying to lead us to something, so they ought to be coordinates of some sort. Aha, latitudes and longitudes!_ Yada grouped up the numbers from left to right, differentiating horizontal and vertical values based on the abnormal pause during the audio clip, and then typed it into a map search engine, pressing enter when the x and y plane was established. Within seconds, the answer was revealed...  
"Nice, France." Yada spoke the result aloud. After staring at it with intrigue for a little bit, she then proceeded to relay it to the rest of the team.  
  
-Ten minutes later...-  
  
"France? You're serious?" Kazuhiro again seemed incredibly skeptical of what he had just heard.  
"Yes, France. That's where Kazuhiko wants us to go." Yada confirmed.  
"How did you find this out again, exactly?" Miho queried.  
"Kato had an unassuming small notebook inside his three-year archives. It spoke of encoding human thought signals into numbers we can use to inform our Smartguns of when they are allowed to fire. He used that same code to hide his message." Yada explained.  
"Why would he want to conceal this information, though? It's a secure channel; we're the only ones who were listening on it." Bellamy scratched the back of his head.   
"No, we actually weren't. I should've picked this up earlier, actually; our comms system was hijacked. Whoever the perpetrator was, piggybacked the frequency we used during the final eight minutes of the operation, meaning they too heard Kato's message. He knew that, of course, because he must've gotten caught in the Biolabs that way." Katalina informed.  
"Fair enough, I suppose. But back to Nice, Yada-san, what do you think my younger cousin wants us to find over there?" Kazuhiro inquired.  
"That, I do not know. Maybe he's planning another operation and is waiting on you guys. Maybe he's going somewhere else entirely and needs us there to kill two birds with one stone. You guys know the deal; only Kato can explain the methods to his madness." Yada asserted.  
"That, we can definitely agree on." Miho refocused. "Okay well, all of us - myself, Bellamy, Tsuchiya, and Kat - will be heading to France to pick up on the trail. Kazuhiro, will you be joining us?"  
"I don't think so, Miho. I am Hellbent on getting the guys that nearly killed my kin, no doubt, but Kazuhiko has always been pushing me to keep to my strengths ever since-" Kazuhiro glimpsed at Yada for a moment, but then returned to his sentence. "A year ago, and after nearly losing him here, I feel compelled to honor his wishes at least for some time." Kazuhiro declared his stance. The slow tone and tightening fist spoke otherwise of his certainty, however, and it was visible to everyone else.  
"We understand. Yada, thank you for your assistance; it was very much invaluable. But don't worry now; you can leave the rest to us - we'll find Kato and put a stop to this new crisis going on." Kat endearingly heartened Yada.  
But the youngest of the visible ladies kept a vigilant expression on her face.  
"Yada?" Miho noticed the serious look the former was giving.  
"I'll be coming with, participating in the operation. Please just tell me where you'll be residing and sit tight; I will be joining once I arrive in the city." Yada suddenly asserted.  
"Whoa, what? You'll be teaming up with us?" Bellamy widened his eyes to that sentence.  
"Yes. Just tell me where we can meet up, and we'll conduct the operation from there." The young woman repeated herself.  
"Yada, we're all aware that you've received excellent assassin training, and have definitely studied up on advanced self-defense, saying nothing about your silver tongue and quick wit, which surely means you can take care of yourself very well. But you're needed with those amazing skills elsewhere." Satoshi claimed politely.  
"Kazuhiro, you can briefly hog all of the current, major KAM business dealings, correct?" The subject asked him, practically ignoring the last little monologue that went her way.   
"S-sure, but-" Kazuhiro was interrupted.  
"Then I am clear for the next two weeks at least. Free to continue in this investigation." Yada noted.  
"But is it a good idea to-" Bellamy was similarly cut off.  
"Ed, you ought to know that it's not a good idea to try and dissuade Yada from doing what her heart tells her." Miho acknowledged. "But Yada, when Kato does inevitably show up, because he will, what are you going to do?"  
"Oh, when I find Kato? That's easy." Yada opined. "When I find him... I'm going to punch him." She declared with utter determination.  
All of next day went by with non-stop work, though of multiple other varieties. Yada spent all morning collecting all of the essentials for her trip, quickly stopped by KAM HQ to relay certain details that her second Nakanishi must know, book a first-class flight to Nice, and speak to all of her fellow AssClass members. Not wanting them to worry for either her or Kato, she merely stated that she would be testing out submarines along the Australian coastline that were being constructed by a business partner, leading her to be locked out of the net and cell for an indefinite time.  
"Wow, you're going to go deep under?" Muramatsu curiously asked.  
"Maybe even touch the Great Barrier Reef?" Kurahashi sounded a bit too excited.  
"Well, I don't know about that far. But I'll definitely ask if we can brush the surface of it." Yada stated, as she packed two sets of urban travel ensembles. The clothes themselves on her back were a far-cry from those sharp, stark business suits from earlier; a red cold-shoulder t-shirt over a black spaghetti-string tank top, dark-wash denim short-shorts, and a gold ponytail string. A pair of knee-length, brown leather boots with 1.25 inch elevation at the heel, completed the look.  
"I've gone to space, and I'm still pretty envious somehow." Karma noted.   
"Do show us some photos when you resurface!" Okuda smiled widely.  
"Indeed. And with a camera I and Okajima have recommended to you way back when." Chiba, with Hayami's arms curled over his clavicles, reminded with imperativeness.  
"Will do. Talk to you all in a bit." Yada walked to her laptop and closed it shut. She then moved to another part of the table and dragged her hand across several accessories on it - a leg-strap waist purse, a single leather fingerless glove, a titanium cuff, and a silver heart choker. She put them all on after the quick glimpse, and then continued to get everything ready.   
When it approached 6:30 P.M., Yada got a drive to Haneda Airport, and walked in the long line through the security gate.  
During said ordeal, however, the young CFO couldn't help but feel as though she was being watched. She looked back behind her from time to time, to try and scope something peculiar out, but there was never a stalker in sight. Towards the end, she shrugged it off and carried on with her task in mind.  
Thirty minutes later, the plane had taken off, on its way to clear almost ten-thousand kilometers in roughly fifteen hours. For the Japanese, a surplus of sunlight and extra hours didn't mean their internal alarm clocks would shift, so most of them dozed off within a couple hours. But not Yada; she didn't even need coffee; being an elite businesswoman in a man's underworld just makes you so aware.  
That also didn't mean she was unscrupulous to others' needs, though; not wanting to disturb her neighbor's slumber, she stood up and made her way to the flight attendants' kitchen station to continue her work unabated. Along that path, however, Yada again felt stared at, and she made haste to get behind some cover. Once more as well, she took a look at her right wrist, which hosted the metal cuff from earlier, believing progressively that it was time. But before she escalates the situation to violence, she tries identifying the stalker one more time. The potential threat proved to be far too elusive for her track... Almost as if she was just a hair from pinning them down, but the spy always knew where she would look next. But the lack of ability locking onto them was just how Yada now knew who has been creeping on her. "Alright, Naoko, enough games." She whispered, facing the other way from her fellow peer intentionally.  
"Four years out of the chase, and you still got good instincts. I'm proud of you, Yada-san." Akimoto Naoko, who leaned on the tall storage doors, gave up the act.  
"Oh, I've been finding ways to keep fast, active, and vigilant. Kato's given me a few pointers on maintaining that edge." The ponytailed lady finally turned around, facing her friend.   
The young agent's smile diminished after that statement. "Aw, you just had to bring up that ultimate troublemaker, didn't you?" She rose off the wall aggressively, almost in a confronting manner at her peer.  
But after a few seconds, they both conceded smirks before a mutual set of full smiles and embracing each other deeply.   
The conversation eventually transitioned to the ground, with the two young ladies sitting with their backs to the adjacent pantry door.  
"... So Kato has mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind only this as a trace of his persistence. After a bout of tricky analysis, befitting a Kato puzzle, we tracked down the next lead to go on to be in Nice, which is in France." Yada finished her explanation.  
"I've heard of the city, thank you." Naoko smugly smiled at the innocent insult to her intelligence.  
"So that's why I'm here, on a flight to the country of love. So tell me, how'd you know the submarines were a lie?" The CFO interrogated.  
"Come on, Yada; you have a pretty decorated way of updating us on your life situations, even for emergencies. Hell I still recall the time you were so elated about your brother Akihisa's final major surgery for CAD, but you still made sure to not skip the formalities. You can excuse it with abrupt changes in your business plan, but you're not fooling me; you made all the time before to make interactions between the lot of AssClass perfect; nothing is ever going to get in the way of that."  
"Yeah, you're right. You at least understand the urgency though, right?" Yada rhetorically questioned.  
"I do. And for that, I want to help out too." Naoko nodded.  
"Ah good- wait, what?" Yada looked towards her again. "Naoko, it'll sound very ironic coming from me, but we need you to help protect the open homefront; you can leave these international dealings to the Kato Alliance." She stated.  
"Hah, if I let Kazuhiko take on every threat by his lonesome, not only do I skip out on all of the fun, but I wouldn't be able to call myself a proud protector of Japan and its interests." Naoko explained herself. "Besides, with you going into the fray as well, I really cannot sit idly by; no one's harming you on my watch." She finished.  
"Well, there's no genuine way I'm going to be able to convince you to say no. But this isn't another rogue operation is it? I'd hate for you to get into trouble again like last time." Yada inquired.  
"Not going to happen. Once we hit the ground again, I'll tell Karasuma-nii. With his sway as Chief of Air Staff, he'll legitimize this mission for me." She proposed with confidence.  
"That's good to hear. Alright, I suppose you're on board. I'm sure Kato and Miho will appreciate having your expertise on tap too." Yada confirmed.  
"Excellent." Naoko refocused. "So I know the gist of this campaign, but not so much the extra pleasantries. What's this about a bioweapon of some sorts and the lack of true information on it?" She asked back.  
"Well, that will take too long to say in just words, so let me get something ready..." Yada rose to her feet, pulling some device from out of her waist purse. She proceeded to unfold the top two flaps and then slammed it into the ground of the plane.  
"Whoa, careful!" Naoko controlled her exclaims, before realizing that the action was very much deliberate. When it made contact with the ground, the machine anchored itself with a set of suction cups and immediately summoned three coned beams of blue lights that illuminated the ceiling. "Wow, what is this thing?" She queried.  
"This is my VITaL machine, standing for 'Virtual Interface Touchpad and Linker'. It is an expansive, de-weaponized version of the KAM AtTac Suits' InReTs screens, complete with a virtual theoretical engineering workshop, secure all-web surfing, evidence analysis station, audiovisual passive recording with compatible devices, and live-algorithm implementation. Stores all of my evidence and what I've been able to gather from it; basically functions as a secondary brain almost." Yada explained.  
"Why can't I see anything but lights then?" Naoko stood up to gaze further.  
"Ah, you need these specially-programmed lenses. A security feature, of course." Yada offered her a carrying tray of a pair.  
Naoko took a few seconds to put them on, and then feasted her eyes. "Whoa, all of your guys' stuff during the past week. This information is incredibly illustrated and conclusive..." She sounded very much impressed.  
"All on holographic imagery." Yada tilted her head and smiled, while holding onto a miniaturized, digital replica of the terminal that Kato had accessed in Kinesthesiz's Utah facility.  
The agent noticed the CFO was able to manipulate the information and tried to do so herself. The folder she attempted to move aside, however, passed through her hand instead.  
"This device is coded to my handprints only, so it's not recognizing your input. I do have some finger stubs with guest prints though, so you can work with this data too." The ponytailed lady informed.  
"Man, you've really been keeping busy..." Naoko crossed her arms. "In the right hands like yourself, a person can be as vast and fast as Kato's own mind." She stated.  
It was Yada's turn to have her smile diminish slightly. "Yeah. Suppose so."  
For the rest of the fifteen-hour flight, Yada and Naoko continued to review all of the current documents and evidence on the VITaL device. The plane arrived in Nice right on time, and so the two girls grabbed their light luggage and made their way out of the airport, still unaware that another was watching since their reunion on the aircraft.  
"Ah, France. Nakamura's currently studying in the country too; opposite side of the nation, though, so no chance of seeing her at any point while we're here." Yada stated as she basked in the colors, lugging her travel backpack behind her with flawless technique.  
"I still recall Irina-nee promising to bring Karasuma-nii and Chiasa here to have their first family vacation. That was a year ago; Karasuma always says he's too busy, but Irina's not giving up on the dream. It'll surely make for a great story for Chiasa to learn about when she gets old enough to retain those ideas." Naoko similarly marveled at the sights, cylindrical duffel bag strapped across her torso.  
"Yeah, what a trip that would be. But alas, it is not for us right now - we're on a mission now." Yada refocused, rather disappointingly.  
"Indeed. So where is it that we were to meet up with Miho and the others?" Naoko asked her.  
"Uh, the Boscolo. Would you believe it, another five-star hotel that they practically own at this point, and use for a stakeout point." Yada responded.  
Naoko snapped her fingers to that remark. "Ah yeah, I recall that spot now. Yeah, Kato mentioned it once while talking about siding with his older cousin to help a deep-cover agent from out Foreign Affairs department who was infiltrating the Miliea." Naoko's eyes quickly flickered, which was noticed by Yada. "In fact, I also recall the secret passage he described that went through the zig-sagging alleys to get back into the establishment very swiftly and discreetly. We ought to try it out, Yada-san." Naoko spoke rather jubilantly; the utmost of her cheerful glee was put into her pronunciation of the proper romaji.  
Yada understands the sudden shift and plays along. "Ah, I see; that's good, Naoko-san; that way we don't have to get continuously bombarded by locals fascinated with the Japanese touring their lands!" She spoke loudly before following her friend into the spaces between the tall buildings.  
Moments later, their suspicious behavior proved to be justified; some forty-fiveish number of young men had followed the two ladies into the corridors in search of them; some of their faces revealed quite the magnitude of eagerness. When they heard commotion as they reached forks and webs of paths, they followed the source. Whether they were distracted or just not attentive, they never looked back from where they came from, which was ultimately unfortunate for the stragglers, who were picked off one by one after each narrow passage. When the party reached the dead-end, only thirty of them remained - but again, they weren't exactly paying attention to that.  
"<Damnit, where did those asian sluts go?>" A blonde man hollered, looking around aggressively.  
"<The bitches, playing hard to get.>" A brunette then announced.  
"<It's not every day some dumb Japanese busts come around these parts. I'm not letting that taste pass; we're going to track them down!>" Another hazel-hair asserted to the rest.  
"<Too late,>" Naoko proclaimed in French, stepping out from behind an isolated corner in the square backyard-like area. "<We already made you lot.>" She replied afterwards.  
"<There's one of them!>" The Captain Obvious of the group pointed out.  
Yada hopped out from behind the cover of a stone fence similarly lining the field. "<Well, well, six minutes, and lone female tourists like ourselves are already being targeted by the tournantes. You were right, Naoko; predator scum do wait around a lot at the public transportation hubs.>" Yada also spoke in the vernacular.  
"<Not too surprised of the actions of the lowest forms of humans...>" Naoko shook her head condescendingly.  
"<Ooo, these proud sluts have some big mouths on them. Judgy too!" The same blonde from earlier observed.  
"<Those mouths won't be so proud and judgy when they've busy sucking on something. Get them!>" A presumed leader ordered, splitting up the gang to attempt to overwhelm the two young ladies.  
Naoko immediately rushed into the fray, but Yada took a moment to fasten something on her wrists and boot ankles; almost instantly, her arms and legs were fitted with gauntlets and greaves, without any other actions required. "Let's do this!" They both yelled in Japanese.  
  
=Ryu Ga Gotoku 0's OST ["Trouble Shooting Star"](https://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8UyG3EOer8) plays.=

# 矢田 桃花そして秋本 直子VS回転ギャング

## Touka Yada - Chief Financial Officer of KAM R&D

### "Just the opportunity I've been waiting for to let loose!"

## and

## Naoko Akimoto - Special Operations Field Agent for the Japanese Ministry of Defense

### "You've just catcalled the wrongest ladies!"

## VS

## Tournantes Gangsters

  
Neither lady thought much of being outnumbered fifteen to one, beating their opponents to the punch with one of their own. Naoko did, anyways, with a piercing right straight directed right at the leftmost of the front line, sending him flying back while the rest missed their own jabs. Yada handled it a bit differently, Dempsey Rolling underneath all of their upper-body strikes and stunned two of them with rising shoulder tackles to their chin. Capitalizing on this, she side-kicked one of them away while putting the other between her and most of her other opponents, keeping the conflict isolated. When she noticed that a few were taking to flanking the human-shielding, Yada delivered a high knee to the chest of the involuntary guard, sending him into and knocking over two of his subordinates.  
Yada performed a similar method to deal with the on-comers, blocking a left swing and pivoting it into a hammerlock. She then pushed forward, allowing the gangsters dumb enough to continue attacking to wail on their colleague instead of her. When she made it to all the way behind the rest, she then turned around, so that she was back-to-back with her shield (she maintains the hammerlock by switching grips - left hand keeps left wrist), checking a low roundhouse kick and front-kicking the sender in the cheek. His closest ally managed to sidestep the faller, and charge forward. Unfortunate for him, as he falls victim to a dropkick; the momentum allows her to backflip across the shield's own spine, landing in front of him while he is still bent and keeping the arm bent.  
Naoko saw another leader's right jab coming a mile away, and catches it into forward arm wringer. She temporarily uses the back of his head too to block some other punches and even headbutt another, before transitioning the resthold into a standing Waki Gatame. From there she only had to backflip over the man to dislocate his shoulder; he cries in pain as he collapses from his own weight. Naoko does the same to another, first high roundhouse kicking him before his haymaker can be perpendicular to her. His hand now limp, she seizes it into a front wristlock, forcing his elbow to point up; perfect for a dislocation by an armpit collapsing on top of it.   
Yada applies a Guillotine choke to the still bent opponent, moving the arm into a semi-straightjacket position to add extra leverage to the quick submission. Yada back kicks someone about to take her from behind and then lifts her victim by the head (cranking down on the neck still), to have his legs be caught on the shoulders of another charger. The second youngster confused by this new setup, he doesn't see it coming where Yada whips the choked to her left, causing the latter to headscissor the former onto the ground.   
The ponytailed young lady again avoids a reckless swing and throws her hand across his chest and creeping up on the far shoulder, setting up an STO takedown. She apparently overestimated how much she needed to kick for her foe's legs to give, and so when she delivers the move, he does a full spin before being forced onto the ground face and ribs first.  
Naoko slid underneath a raised heel from another opponent, stopping when she lifts up her own to boot another's jewels. She then barrel-rolls away from a flanker's punt, getting to a three-point stance as he homes in again with another kick - a roundhouse this time. Naoko pulls back her head just in time to let it hit the one she went under earlier in the kidney. The missed attack overswings his body to the point that he exposes his side, specifically his ribcage, which Naoko exploits, rising up to two feet with an uppercut to the sensitive area. The blow lifts the man into the air, crashing into another.  
She easily dispatches another on-comer with a spinning backfist to her side. She then keeps the circular momentum going, heel-sweeping the one right behind the last, and then going high again with a spinning hook kick. With her right again being targeted, she pivots through a haymaker, causing the man to spin with her and losing proper balance - a perfect opportunity for a vertical double palm strike when the transition concludes, propelling him backwards too.  
Yada boots away a left hook and sets up a Russian legsweep, before shifting her close arm behind his head and then sweeping at his shins, causing the man to fall face-first into the asphalt. Her invincibility run ends, however, when she doesn't see someone jumping from the ledge of a small fountain, delivering a right straight to her face. She spins with the impact of the strike to minimize the damage, which still causes her to fall onto her side. She side rolls out of danger, eventually finding herself underneath some small metal scaffolding. Rising to her feet, she sees one predator attempt to get in with her, which she rejects by punting his face as he steps through once, taking his limp hand and pulling back, causing his temple to smack the top bar he tried to avoid in the first place.  
Realizing that the structure can serve her well, she continued to use it to block most winding strikes, causing her opponents to resort to lunges, which they paid for in kind through riposte kicks or more arm pulls. One other guy managed to kick Yada in her waist, making her hit the far wall from the momentum. He believed that to be his chance to get in, which was his mistake, as his chest on top of one low bar, she jumped back in, bringing a knee down on his back and compressing his upper torso on it, taking all the wind out. She dropkicks out of one gap from the scaffolding when two from the side she neglected the most got in.  
Agent and CFO were able to meet back to back, through way of spinning out of Half-Nelson backbreaker and Japanese arm drag respectively.  
"Having fun yet, Naoko-san?" Yada quickly rubbed her punched cheek, remaining vigilant at the roughly sixteen still surrounding them.  
"Please, smalltime is all this is." Naoko switched from Hitman boxing stance to a tight Brawler, eying the closer competitors.  
The tournantes members, realizing that they are not assaulting some ordinary girls, escalate the conflict by suddenly brandishing weapons; some pulled out switchblades or kitchen knives from their jackets, while others got metal rods or 2x4s.  
"Okay... Now they're whispering. Hmhmm, You get it? They're not really talking yet." Naoko quipped.  
"I got it." Yada nodded.  
After that sequence, they continue; Yada hooked her left arm with Naoko's right and swung in her clockwise direction; the end result was the MoD agent's right heel slamming with maximum centripetal force at two of the first charger's heads, knocking them out cold. The strike ended with Naoko being sent towards one wielding a lead pipe, repositioning in mid-air to deliver two knees to the chest and landing on top of him onto the ground. She seizes that same improvised weapon, and tosses it at the shins of two to her left, tripping them up; one of them wielded a 2x4, and dropped it horizontally with his neighbor, causing them both to hit their chins on the top of it.  
Yada evaded several dagger swipes from three, side-kicking one away to make it a two-on-one briefly. One makes the error of lunging at face-level, which the former catches in another arm wringer; she then roundhouse kicks his exposed chest to slam him into (and slightly in front of) the other, pivoting with him to keep it linear. Yada awaits the forced error of the second trying to stab from over his colleague's shoulder, which not only doesn't make the far range, but Yada can exploit, causing the first's ear to slide through the blade. She also manipulates his own blade to bend back and stab the other on the far shoulder, and downing them both with a legsweep takedown, forcing them both on their necks.  
The third she discarded with earlier rose back up and homed in. She distracts him by taking the second's knife and throwing it at the hand holding the other weapon, causing both to bounce out of his grasp. With him distracted, she put him onto the stone with a heel kosoto gari throw. Yada sees someone with a steel chair above his head charging in too, which she stops dead with a crouching right straight to his kidney. His hunched-over form allows Yada to lift him up in a Princess carry, but the conclusion was anything but regal when she raises her right leg and drops the foot down on the third knifeman's ribs, while simultaneously giving the chair guy a backbreaker; the added weight shattered at least two bones below.  
Naoko ducked underneath another careless wooden swing, and catches the plank when it goes behind his head; when she pulls it the same way, the man loses his weapon and gets whipped off his feet and into the fountain ledge. She viciously prods one end of the Brazilian cherrywood into another's chest, and punches the other to add impact to injury. She sees two coming from behind her; one with a shiv and the other with a tire iron. The first eats the wood after missing a stab attempt and having his head pushed into the second end of the plank (again, hurting the one on the other side). The second needed a little more incentive to touch base, with Naoko ducking a swing and bear-hugging him so that his back now hit the wood. She then dropkicked his chest, crushing both of their sternums.   
With only a few left, Naoko and Yada glimpsed at each other for an instant and agreed to really team up to finish them. Yada hip-tossed one man, putting him on his ass, but not for long when Naoko ran in with a penalty kick to the nose. Naoko then spun through another's wild slash attempt, ending up behind him and delivering a backslide driver; As if nearly breaking the neck wasn't bad enough, however, Yada then came in with a leaping curb stomp to his face. One pursuer tried to feint a weapon attack into a side kick, but Yada was not fooled, going behind him and taking up both legs in a reverse Giant Swing, slamming him into two others on their chins. Yada rebounded him off the ground to achieve some more elevation; enough for Naoko to jump up to his face and deliver a Codebreaker as he fell back down.   
The final three were dealt with when one tried a kick, which Yada pushed to another's hands (dropping his pipe in confusion). Yada slung her arm around the closer's neck to have a simulated-pole-swinging superkick to the holder (taking him out) and still remaining behind the first. She then elbowed the small of his back, and then hoisted him onto her shoulders in an Electric Chair. Naoko put the third onto all-fours with a swinging gutbuster, and saw Yada setting up a Piledriver, nodding with her to proceed. Naoko agreed, jumping off of the fallen's raised back and taking the raised man's head into her left headlock, completing the assisted delivery of an Electric Chair Brainbuster.  
  
=OST ends.=  
  
After the scuffle, Naoko pulls out a long, elastic metal cord from the duffel bag she concealed underneath a nearby bench, and looped it around every set of handcuffs that she had swiftly upon all of the thirty. "A wronged mistress ought to frequent these alleys at some point and recognize the lot of you. police shouldn't be too far behind after that." She asserted as she clapped her hands free of their filth. She then turned to her best friend. "Yada-san, are you all set? Found the bags you've hidden?"  
"Yep; luggage here, backpack there." The ponytailed lady cheerfully spoke as she brandished each container. The enhanced gloves and boots she equipped for the combat situation dematerialized afterwards, letting the cargo actually fall into her grasp.  
Naoko took notice of the disintegrating armor. "Um, Yada-san."  
"Hm?" She curiously looked back.  
Naoko hesitated on the draw, and before she could mention it, another thing popped into her mind. She looked towards one corridor. "Somebody's coming!" She whispered, pulling out her Beretta Ninety2. Yada did the same, digging into her backpack's underpocket for a nickel-plated Hudson H9 and pointing it at the hall. "Who's there?!" The latter yelled.  
"Yada-san?" A foreign, familiar voice answered the call.  
"Miho?" Yada let her aim dip in response.  
Finally, the newcomers showed themselves - Miho Akiyama and Edward Bellamy.  
"Ah, some of my many sore sights I would like to see." Naoko looked slightly relieved.  
"You're not looking too bad yourself, I guess." The former SAS officer grumbled, putting away his Glock 19.  
"Yada-san, what are you doing here with this piss and rabble?" Miho walked up to her in a very concerned manner. "Geez, you let them get a shiner on you too? Oh, this won't do." She took a knee to be more level with Yada and rubbed the red area.  
"Okay, Miho; I get you're a big sister type and all, but you got to stop babying me, especially in front of Naoko-san."  
"You got some dreamy little boys here, and you're worried about how I'll look at you in the future?" The secret agent held one of her hips.  
"All jokes aside, it would be best to get to the Boscolo from here; it's not too far." Bellamy noted.  
"Ah yeah, we got to plan out the next leg of the operation." Yada asserted.  
"Not after a good wash and at least an hour's rest. We're in no rush when it comes to your well-being, Yada-san. Yours even too, Naoko." Miho bounced back.  
"Um... Thanks." Naoko was shockingly, but genuinely, appreciative.  
"Then let's make haste." Bellamy led the way.


	3. Tailing Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yada, Naoko, and a small KAM team of elites arrive in Nice, France, hoping to pick up on the lead that their beloved Chairman happened upon. Just what might that lead be?

The three ladies and man reach the Boscolo roughly a minute later. Once there, Naoko and Yada waste no time washing up in a communal, gender-specific shower room, cleaning away any tournantes filth and grime that got on them during the one-sided scuffle. It was also during that time that the Special Ops agent looked to her CFO friend, and remembering something still so... Very peculiar about her.  
"So, I've never got to ask back there." Naoko, rubbing her tricep with some body-wash formula, started up another conversation with Yada, who was in the open stall adjacent to her own.  
"Hm? About what?" Yada looked back at her, while brushing away the bubbles still foaming the lower ends of her hair.  
"Errr..." Naoko rolled her eyes in thought. "What's with the kinesio tape?" She averted her main point.  
"Kinesio- Oh, you mean the RockTape on my back? Miho's been putting me through an intense training regime since I've become a major public figure for KAM and the Alliance. You know, to competently defend myself from low to mid-level threats. Unfortunately, even though she did dial it down just a bit for someone who cannot achieve 100% muscle control like herself, I've been feeling muscle tissue try to leave my bones. RockTape will keep it in place, healing my affected areas while also giving me free mobility and strength." She explained.  
"Aha. Makes sense." Naoko slowly turned away.  
The darker-brown-maned of the ladies cracked a large grin under closed eyes as she finished scrubbing said strands. "I sense a follow-up." She spoke with singsong. "Boy you've been full of questions lately, haven't you?" She joked.  
"Aw, how'd you know? Oh, the query? Okay: What is up with your clothes? They make combat-ready armor now?" Naoko shifted through the verbal tones of ironic, ticked, and perplexed with flawless execution.  
"It's my KAM AtTac Suit." Yada flatly answered.  
"Say what?" Naoko became even more dumbfounded.  
"Oh boy, Naoko-san. You really believe that Kato Arms did not try to make those suits to be even more powerful?" Yada crept in a little too close for comfort with her lifelong friend. "Because they did! But not only that, but they made it much more accessible, and easier to put on. My suit is a Mk. IV in that department!" She announced.  
"There's been two other versions beforehand?" Naoko tilted her head in curiosity.  
"Of course; that's how counting works! The Mk. II, Kato completed months after the AssUniv Program ended; it comprised of nanomachines stored within weaved containment units that overlapped the material of hoodies, sweatpants, gloves, paintball masks, and combat boots to construct the armor. Kato then developed a modified evaluation function so that the servos of the suit could map a full coverage of the user's body from clothing as simple as a tank top, shorts, and sandals, thus bringing way to Mk. III. For Mk. IV, we don't even have to be wearing regular clothes at all; the suit is stored in my glove, boots, bracelet, necklace, and waist purse. I can manually set up the suit's path for full defense, though it can be psychically called in for sudden, less-dangerous emergencies as well." Yada gave a crash course on the Mimir/Saga history.  
"That's quite smart. Well-thought-out, in fact. Does Miho and the rest also have a version of that?" Naoko sounded impressed.  
"You bet they do, though they hardly find an opportunity to call on it - being badasses and all." Yada refocused. "But I still cannot believe you thought that! Are you telling me that the duffel bag you brought on this trip is packed with the Mk. I?" She interrogated incredibly seriously.  
"Well..." Naoko nervously responded.  
"You're lucky then, because I have a Mk. III setup kit with your name on it! I have it just for extra emergencies in case I need a spare on tap, but your need for instant armor is greater than mine." Yada noted, clasping Naoko's hands together with hers.  
"Thank you, I guess." Naoko reacted.  
After getting into bath robes to dry off, Yada pulled out the MK. III containment unit and installed it onto Naoko's next-day outfit. She also showed her how to safely remove the cartridges and replace them on a new, different attire. They then proceeded for several (say "fifteen") minutes of Yada comically helping Naoko trigger the suit on command as well as button press, which oftentimes required... Incentive.  
"Hey! Don't touch there!"  
"Ah, cut it out!"  
"Stop looking at me like that! Especially here!"   
Those were just some of the many phrases Naoko made while Yada customized the MK. III to the former's needs.  
"Just so you know, when this campaign is all over, you'll be traumatized by how exactly we'll get the Mk. IV on you and the rest of our friends.." Yada playfully informed.  
Needless to say, Naoko came to regret speaking gratitude for the generous, effective gift.  
"You young ladies done playing around?" Miho appeared from the behind the door to the room. When they nodded, she continued on. "Very good. We're all set for you to join the briefing now." She suggested.  
"On our way." Yada bowed and smiled.  
Seconds later, everyone was in the living room of the presidential suite to begin the planning process.  
"Yada-san, let me take the time to say it is excellent seeing you again. And Naoko-san, we appreciate you ensuring safe passage for our beloved ally and major public figure." Miho formally stated.  
"Thanks. It's, nice to feel appreciated." Naoko nodded to the remark.  
_To think, just several years ago they would've been at each other's throats like Kato once was with Karasuma. Now they're practically sisters in arms, and smiling to meet each other again._ Yada noticed, smiling as well.  
"Now, onto the matter at hand: I trust Yada has given you a brief seminar on the past few of our missions?" Satoshi inquired.  
"Indeed. I know that this is about a new bioweapon's existence being leaked, and that Kinesthesiz Biolabs is believed to be developing it. Kato and you all tried to gain more information on it, only to find the resource long cleared away. Kato has found another lead, and this clue claims it is in Nice, which so happens to be where we are right now." Naoko answered.  
"That's the gist." Katalina spoke before sipping out of a Burger King fountain drink cup.  
"Very good. So, Yada, while you were out and about on your way here, we naturally arrived early and decided to do some early investigation, finding out just why exactly Chairman Kato wanted wanted us here." Satoshi went on.  
"Me, Tsuchiya, and Bellamy all took the field, and found nothing special on our own, until Kat discovered that Killian Davids, the CEO of Kinesthesiz, had his name put up on the dark web, partaking in an unannounced vacation within the city." Miho continued.  
"More specifically..." Nylen puts down her drink to pick up her laptop. The hotel plasma screen to the team's side turned on and took up her desktop. "He is currently situated in the Suisse. Now, we haven't had much time to study his behaviors just yet, but he is the strangest paranoid we've ever seen, with him thinking nothing of roaming around the town during his own intervals, and picking up an assortment of refreshments, from bagels to pizzas. With detail, naturally." Kat explained and narrated to the corresponding images being displayed.  
"Even then, it's not like he's nervous about repercussions at all." Naoko squinted her eyes.  
"Why would a major hierarchal figure in a company who just suffered a great arson at one of his facilities drop everything for a retreat? If one of KAM's facilities suddenly caught on fire, the last thing you'd do is run away; you got to clear the smoke that comes after." Yada was equally confused.  
"They got that covered; Press came in, blaming a scientist working late that night for the burning down of the main testing wing." Kat put up one article from the Washington Post about the matter.  
"That makes sense, then. It may make you look indifferent or callous, but for everyone else, he ended the problem within the same night it came to be; most would see that as effective business handling. Conspiracy theories would be laughed out the front door when efficiency rebounds." Yada nodded in understanding of the situation.  
"Alright, so Davids taking time out of the public is clear now; and Kato led us straight to where he was hiding. You believe that he wants us to take him in for information regarding the project?" The MoD agent suggested.  
"That's the endgame of our theory. Whether he's the one really behind all of this, or there's someone else lurking in the shadows, it's lucid that he's the only one we know that certainly knows something about this." Satoshi replied.  
"Okay. So we bring him in. How?" Naoko looked between them all.  
"It looks like we have two options." Yada rose out of the couch, walking closer to the flatscreen. "Either we bug and surveil his suite in the Suisse so that we too listen in on his next business call with partners and associates, or we tail him to his next refreshment destination, and seize him from there to ask our own questions." She proposed.  
"No doubt, we could definitely wire every last inch of Davids' room, but I would advise against it, because either Davids or who he's working with knows about the goings-on of our operation to this point - That's how he surprised Kato at the Biolabs. They surely believe we would do something like bugging, and so we will need to disobey our typical directives." Katalina recommended.  
"That's very savvy... Alright, we'll tail him, find his greatest moment of vulnerability, and have a literally nice conversation." Miho pounded her fist.  
"I'm sure all of you realize this too - The decision to follow him would be greatly anticipated as well. This new foe could probably know your most-common strategies to spy on mobile ground." Naoko figured.  
"Of course they would. Which is why I've long been thinking about ways to bypass that." Yada responded. "Miho, Bellamy, and I will be on point; we will always be within one-hundred meters of Davids. Satoshi is on quick and heavy transport; if Davids and his security detail ever make any of us, the blown will retreat to your vehicle to regain discretion and continue the hunt. Naoko, you shall take the skies on top of the Tour de la Prefecture to keep a long-range eye on our target. Katalina; you're gonna take their ears - they can't beat us if they cannot communicate."  
"I would love to hijack their signal, but their devices carry an antinoise that blocks the hotwire path to their sensors. I need..." Her mind then flickered. "Oh, you're going to wear a hearing node that pulses an anti-antinoise, won't you?"  
"You should know what frequency that antinoise is; tune it to that and I will assure an unabated hijack." Yada nodded.  
"Excellent. I won't let the moment pass, Yada." Kat bowed.  
"You've been planning all of that out since you've heard Killian Davids was here?" Bellamy looked pretty dumbfounded.  
"Um, yeah. Impressed, are you?" Yada smirked.  
_She's really gotten to be so much like him._ Naoko thought.  
Immediately, the Kato Alliance faction got to work, fine-tuning all of their necessary tech and specifying all of the other necessary details of the mission, down to how close the point-people had to be and what to with a variable number of close security. Yada and Naoko even took to looking back on the former's VITaL device to more effectively visualize where they might best chokepoint Davids from the rest of his personnel given key food places within the city.  
Preparations went deep into the night. After some final checks, everyone was ready to rest up for the operation by midnight.  
Yada, in running shorts and a racerback tank top for lounging, looked out the balcony of their suite, contemplating something that she was fiddling with in her legstrap purse.  
"Not too vibrant of a nightlife, is it?" A male voice behind her commented.  
Yada actively looks back, finding that the starter is Satoshi. "Nah, I suppose not."  
"I'm not a huge history buff so I'm not certain about this, but Nice used to be a part of Northeast Italy, so it kind of has some retro Turin flavor. The older kind like it that way, but that's just more reason for the younger folk to try Paris or Lyon." He added on.  
"That would be the reason why Davids would vacate here if the need so urgently rose." Yada looked back to the skyline.  
"Hmph." Satoshi took a step closer. "If I may, ma'am, I take notice of the fact that you have been all about the work lately. You manage to redirect the conversation at every turn to that. Even your little moment with Naoko was to repurpose her equipment for the coming operation."  
"Well, aren't you guys always like that? From one mission to the next, right? Don't want to drag any of you behind, or bring around the belief that I'm not taking this seriously."  
"Oh, none of us doubt your commitment to this cause, Yada. Not even before this. But at the same time, we would be lying if we said we weren't curious about why that is."  
"Why for the why, if I get to ask something back first?" Yada turned around again and leaned on the sill.  
"I won't insult your intelligence, Yada. You know the answer already." Satoshi bowed.  
"..." Yada looked to the ground. "He nearly got himself killed again, Satoshi. I want to punch him for that." She replied, before walking away and towards her bed.  
Satoshi didn't turn around to watch her completely depart, getting lost in thought over the latest conversation.  
Alas, the next morning soon came - it was time to get to work.  
At eight A.M., Davids is seen leaving the Suisse through its main entrance, getting into the middle of five black Chevy Tahoe SUVs. They made off deeper into the city when they believed everything was all set. The convey passed by Yada on a Kawasaki 1400GTR motorcycle, who soon clutched her left ear when the transport stopped at a nearby intersection on the same street. "Katalina, have you started the comms hijack?" She asked into her own earpiece.  
"It's initiated, Yada. Remember, you need to stay within one-hundred meters to keep the deep-root invasion enabled. Keep close, but don't get noticed too early, or it'll be a bust." Nylen reminded.  
"Don't worry; we've got this." Yada noticed the light has turned green, prompting the convoy to proceed, and urging her to do so as well. "Miho, Bellamy, stay in close circulation: we will be alternating focus on where the transport is going to minimize suspicion while knowing the next street it is on. Naoko will keep a vigilant eye on him as well through her binoculars; if we all have to stay out of sight, you'll be telling us a route to get back in line." She ordered and informed.  
"You can count on me." Naoko assured, moving her lenses in sync with the Tahoe's movements.  
Miho was next to catch a glimpse of the next street the transport roamed onto, keeping up in a Renault Talisman 2018. "Subject heading West; a hard right on the impending roundabout." She informed as she took the Northern route instead, allowing Bellamy (in an Audi A6) to take the lead.  
"Subject taking a left onto Rue de Louis." He noted, going straight.  
Now it was Yada's turn, who saw the convoy get on the identified street right when she did from another intersection. "Subject takes a slight right on the pitchfork, merging into Rue Germain." She observed, while also taking a quick look at the street itself as she passed by. "Oh no... No way we can fit in with the roads and view so narrow." She opined.  
"Not to worry; I've got the exit to that lane on lockdown; I'll tell you which way he goes next." Naoko assured them all. "Hm, going North now, towards another roundabout. The lead vehicle has now made a left- uh, hold on, the second has gone diagonal, the third straight ahead! What is this?" She reacted.  
"It's the instigator; he knows we're tailing him somehow." Satoshi, who is driving a Toyota delivery truck, informed them all. "Inside that secluded road, they had ample opportunity to switch up Davids and the license plates; we cannot trust now that the third car is his." He went on further.  
"Naoko, keep calm; stay with any one Tahoe to see if they reconverge with others along the way. Katalina, tune into all of our nodes to locate the receiver; you should be able to know which communicator within each Tahoe is Davids' thanks to the tagging bits you always find on hotwires first." Yada revised her advisement.  
"Uh-huh, affirmative." Kat furiously typed on her keyboard to rapidly switch across each of her teammates' sensor modules, eventually finding that Davids has switched frequency too. "Everyone, tune in to 581 Hz; one of Davids' sentinels has noted the communications alteration. Whoever is nearest to the source will show us which car is Davids'." She requested.  
"Tuning in." All of them more or less stated. After a few seconds, the Swedish logistical operator got her answer.   
"Miho, the subject is right in front of you." Nylen commented.  
"Aha. And now he's heading East on Rue Lafayette. Converge on the area, everybody!" She asserted.   
"Yes ma'am!" They said in unison.  
After a few more minutes of this, with Yada and Bellamy returning on the right path, Davids' Tahoe eventually reunited with one other security vehicle. None the wiser of their tailing, despite all the checks they've done, Davids wanders out of the SUV once they make a complete stop and goes into a local small-business coffee shop (which was clearly trying to take some pages out of Starbucks' book).   
"Subject has made a stop at a breakfast place, as expected. One Guy-De-Lombard's." Naoko flawlessly named the location as she watched the CEO head in through the front door. _Somebody's seen too much Monty Python when that building came to be.  
_"Thanks, Naoko. Yada, you're up. Allow Kat to finish her radio hijack, and then we can set up the capture point." Bellamy requested.  
"I got it down." Yada confirmed, pulling over her two-wheeler in the alley neighboring the cafe. Taking off her helmet, she then flipped her moto jacket around, turning it into a waist-length trench coat, let loose her hair into a long, light wave, and put on a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, completing her disguise just in time to head on in. She spotted Davids and a bodyguard in close tow further up the queue line before the clerk. The distance is too far to naturally listen to anything he has to say reliably. But Yada does have a bypass for that - her earrings! The young lady pressed and held the circular, amethyst stud adorning her left ear for three seconds, and then pivoted the locking winch in the back, until her auditory system zeroed in on Davids' faraway conversation.  
"Boss, this really isn't the best time to be roaming about..." The guard's burly low voice bellowed as Yada first invaded the conversation..  
"I'm going for some blueberry raisin bagels with espresso this time. You sticking with sesame again this time?" The CEO practically ignored the last statement his subordinate had spoke to him.  
"Sir..." The bodyguard sounded more exasperated this time.  
"I must say, I really didn't sign up for this paranoia bullshit." Davids remarked.  
"Be at ease, boss. They're just looking out for their business partner." His sentinel answered back, while keeping an attentive eye on what's going on in front of the two of them.  
_Aha, so there really is someone else working this that we don't know about yet..._ Yada kept her concentration high.  
"'Partner?' Doubt they see that much in me. They're control freaks, they are. Like parents who are cops. And Venture Capitalists." Davids corrected.  
"Well, that pretty much spells out the relationship. It's not concrete information, though; he could just be bluffing for the grandmaster's plan, so we still have to seize him to get true answers." Miho reminded.  
The Kinesthesiz faculty received their refreshments in due time. At the moment that Yada herself had to make her order, the duo were set on leaving... But Kat had finished her break-in as well.  
"Got it! Signal jam primed. Tell me when to activate and we're going to knacker all of their days." Nylen noted to the rest of the team.  
"Hold, we're still setting up the chokepoints for the garrison." Miho cautioned. "Yada, is he leaving right this moment?" She questioned.  
"Yeah; he's just at the door." The ponytailed lady confirmed. "But that's okay; he's not going to get very far..." She smirked.  
"What do you mean?" Naoko again was puzzled.  
"Oh... Clever Yada-san." Kat nodded to her screen.  
Davids got into the Tahoe's passenger seat as his bodyguard tried igniting the engine. "Why are we still here?" He condescendingly asked.  
"Damn engine won't start." the second stated. "Car broke down while off?" He proposed.  
"Are you kidding me?" The CEO was the exasperated one now.  
"No, I'm not. Stay here, okay; I'll take a look." The burly man demanded, stepping out and popping the hood of the vehicle. The security car behind them in parallel parking emptied out to reveal three more, keeping close to protect the CEO.  
"The Chevy's electronics have been disabled due to overheating. All thanks to Yada sliding one of her KAM socks underneath it and overloaded the temperature regulator. Very good." Bellamy explained.  
"Thank you." Yada sipped her latte. "Satoshi, it's time to move in and capture Davis; the trap will be set by the time we take out his initial detail, giving us the cleanest-possible exit." She stepped towards the store windows while speaking.  
But Tsuchiya didn't answer the call, nor did he show up onsite during the next few seconds.  
"Tsuchiya? Where are you? Acknowledge the objective." Miho questioned.  
Moments after, there was an explosion, equivalent to a large vehicle's detonation, happened one block away from Guy-De-Lombard's.  
Yada's eyes widened as she stepped out of the cafe to see the smoke and haze tail up from the origin of the horizon.  
Davids and his security took notice of the incident, but then looked over at Yada, who gazed back at them too. It seems the mutual confronting gazes confirmed to the opposite of either's intentions without speaking them out. Immediately, the CEO made the CFO out to be a threat, and an instant later, threw his coffee cup at her to distract from his escape on foot. "Stop her!" He hollered as he put some distance from the scene.  
Yada angled her shoulders to avoid the liquid container, and tossed her vanity specs away in anticipation to dealing with the four brutes in front of her. With no time to waste, she pulled out four Shock-Pads from the inside of her double-sided jacket and shotgunned them at her foes, striking most of them on their forearms when they blocked, nevertheless incapacitating them with a crippling amount of electrocution. Yada was about to proceed, but then the personal bodyguard of Davids grumbled and got back to all fours, prompting her to nervously turn around and witness him ripping the disk off. Yada goes back into her waist purse to obtain another device, but before she can, he is again taken down. This time for the count by Naoko, who KAM wingsuited onto the scene and weaponizing the downward momentum to deliver an incredibly forceful dropkick to the back of the huge man.  
"Come on, Y! We cannot lose Davids here!" She spoke through the suit's mask, deliberately initializing Yada's name to save anonymity.  
"Right!" Yada nodded and led the way, using a cuff in her pocket to rebind her hair into a ponytail, and summon her AtTac Suit while doing so (When the armor only overlaps with Yada's primary clothing, disregarding her double-sided jacket, she discards it after fully outfitting). "Kat!"  
"Already disrupted their comms. They're operating on a pre-ordained strategy; any one we've studied upon greatly already. Take him down!" Nylen bounced back, adjusting her microphone accordingly.  
When the two young ladies turn past the same corner, they notice two other oncoming security Tahoe vehicles from earlier. They know that Davids hasn't retreated into them as Yada saw the CEO continue to run the opposite way, stopping traffic by running across the street and cutting behind yet another building's vertex.  
"More trouble incoming. Might have to pull out the big, *non-lethal*, guns if we want to keep up." Naoko considered, reaching for her CAA carbine-converted Beretta stuck to her upper back. Yada flirted with the idea too as she unhooked a customized Hudson H9 from the small-of-back holster.  
But before another confrontation can commence, a small sliver of the road before them suddenly collapsed and slanted down, causing both drivers to hit their grilles on the crack and stopping their cars dead. Miho and Bellamy arrive from the perpendicular alleys, taking aim through the passenger windows with their REX Alphas.  
"We got this! Keep after him!" Miho yelled.  
"Thanks for this!" They simultaneously acknowledged, running up the slope of the windshield and continuing pursuit.  
A dozen seconds later, the AssUniv alumni happened across the final Tahoe; Davids was getting into it, and once he had both feet off of the asphalt, it gunned it away from the block. Naoko frontflipped into the right position to fire a Pivoting Wire Wrest hook into the trunk of the vehicle, while the other hook lodged itself into the reinforced concrete wall directly behind her. The car decelerated, but was still making ground, prompting Yada to do the same with her own winch. Their combined efforts brought the vehicle to a stop, creating a cloud of smoke with all of the tire friction.  
The CEO was gestured to escape on foot once more, while his five remaining guards got out to deal with Naoko and Yada.  
"Behind me, Y! I'll make a clear path and keep these guys here. You better have him in a box when we catch up!" The Field Agent uttered, manifesting her Ballistic Shield and charged forward. Yada stayed close as advised, dissuading any flanking tactics from the five as they made it all the way past them, and then handspring-flipped over her once they were clear.  
"Don't get reckless, N!" She spoke back before sprinting ahead.  
With a severe lack of stamina training that her chaser has gone through, the surprisingly quick Davids rapidly lost steam throughout the chase and the gap between cat and mouse diminishes dramatically swiftly. Yada bounces off another restaurant's nearby table to gain some elevation and diving tackles The CEO to the ground. Davids does manage to pull a hand up to keep Yada from mounting on top of him, leading to her safety rolling ahead and giving him some time to get onto his knees and pull out a Walther Creed pistol but Yada returned much too quickly for him to line up a shot; she ripped the slide of the pistol out while keeping Davids in check with a choke, and finally forcing compliance in him with a whack of said slide to his cheek, putting him again on his face.  
Yada dropped the part of the gun she had, kicked the remains out of the CEO's hand, and then lifted him up.  
"Who the," Davids interrupted himself with a bout of coughing as he got forcibly turned around to face his captor. "Who the fuck are you?!"  
"Someone really angry." Yada notably had a lower tone of voice as she was interrogating him. "You're coming with us to answer some questions."  
"Okay, okay! Just please, don't ki-GKK!" Davids did not get to complete his last sentence; a bullet entered his back, specifically in the area behind his heart. Blood now rushed into his mouth, coughing some into Yada's mask. The gunshot reverberating around the area causes a panic as everyone else leaves in a frantic frenzy to escape being next.  
_A sniper!?_ The CFO immediately let go of the CEO, conceding to just his left wrist, pulling him behind the adequate cover of granite and bronze structure. The former saw that Davids couldn't be saved at this point, much to her horror, so she holds his hand, preventing him from dying alone. He passes silently seconds later, of which she quickly skims through his person's contents, discovering a small journal in his back pocket, his phone, wallet, and... A heavy-duty test tube? She then lays his hand over his heart, closes his eyes, and transitions through cover (avoiding the occasional marksman shot coming her way) until she can get into an alleyway the gunman cannot take aim at.   
Yada puts several blocks from the latest scene before dematerializing her AtTac Suit and slouching her back across another corridor's wall. She falls onto her posterior in fear and consternation over what she had to witness.  
"Yada, we heard gunshots! Do you copy? Are you injured?" Kat speaks through the comms system.  
After some hesitation, Yada presses on her left ear to communicate. "I copy... I'm unscathed."  
"Did you pick up on where the sniper shot came from?" Naoko asked.  
"No. I... Didn't dare look." She shook her head at nothing in particular.  
"Fair enough. Where are you? We'll come to make an extraction." Bellamy inquired.  
"Negative on that; let's just reconvene at the Boscolo on our own terms." Yada reconsidered.   
"Very well, Yada. And, you should know for real... Tsuchiya is gone, ma'am." Miho solemnly mentioned.  
Yada closed her eyes and held her forehead, facing the great loss. "Keep calm... And carry on." She finished the conversation. After a few more deep breaths, she mustered the strength to get up and walked her way back to the hotel.


	4. Matter of Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The op in Nice takes a strange, shocking turn for our heroes as the CEO they were tailing gets unceremoniously fragged and Satoshi is seemingly blown up by some other party. With a heavy heart, Yada has to claim whatever looks to be of importance off of Davids and bring it back to the group for analysis and uncovering their next move.

The surviving field teammates all made haste back to their regional safehouse in the Boscolo following the dramatic conclusion to their current objective. With each teammate phoning in their arrivals, Yada knew that she was the last one to arrive at the secret passage into the residential building. But she wasn't going in alone.  
"Yada-san!" Naoko waited at the final corner before the strongdoors. When she identified her CFO friend, she immediately stood straight and embraced her deeply. "Thank God you're safe!" She muttered next.  
"Yes, yes, I'm well. And so are you, I presume?" Yada asked with equal prudence while reinforcing the warming clutch.  
"Hey," Naoko released the hug briefly. "I survived the Neo-Wolfpack. Those guys have nothing on them."  
"Agent Naoko, has Yada appeared at the extraction point yet?" Kat questioned through their comms system.  
Naoko took to her bluetooth to answer. "Yes, she has. Safe and sound. I'll bring her up now."  
"Very good." The Swede logistic operator acknowledged with a hint of relief.  
"Best not keep them waiting; they're almost as worried about you as I am." The MoD agent rhetorically noted.  
"Nice to know..." Yada hesitated to finish the conversation, still deeply affected by her concerns over the previous, gravely matter.  
Nevertheless, she put up a brave face when she returned to the familiar suite. But that proved very difficult - not because Yada cannot act well, but because someone was physically preventing her once she took a step in the room.  
"Owowowowow!"  
"Yada, don't linger in the public of a sniper shot ever again! We'd be totally crestfallen if we lost you by headshot!" Miho has lifted her via bearhug while providing her lecture, using the news broadcast showcasing the incident captured on street CCTV.  
"Indeed, that was very reckless. Your version of the armor cannot reliably protect against ballistics fired above 900 m/s. And you know the specs better than anyone else!" Bellamy called her out.  
"I know - I'm sorry!" She struggled to speak with so little breath in her chest left.  
"Alright, she learned her lesson, bros. Put her down." Kat tapped her fingers on the dining table. The former JGSDF soldier complied, patting Yada on her back as she tried to regain oxygen.  
"Hate to be the bearer of even more bad news, Yada-san, but witnesses saw you and the pursuer, putting two and two together. Now we're all being branded as assassins who performed a hit on the deceased CEO. This was the last thing Kinesthesiz needed - final nail in the coffin, as the economists on the network described. Shutting down." Naoko pointed out.  
"No way we'll be able to get to the other officials of the business then, if we ever needed to." Yada inferred. "So if we don't gather anything from here, then the truth is gone."   
"We presumed you stuck in the area to retrieve anything of significance from Davids' dying person. About that, by the way - the man may have been self-centered and made a deal with the devil for extra rev, but he didn't deserve to go out like that. You did give him the send-off?" Bellamy, arms crossed, came closer to the CFO.  
"As best I could." Yada nodded slowly.  
"Understandable. So did you claim anything?" Nylen inquired.  
"A fair few things, actually." Yada turned to her legstrap purse. "A phone..." She tossed it into the air for Kat to grab. "A wallet..." Bellamy caught the spin-trick. "A journal..." Miho parried the reverse propulsion, letting the book fly upwards a bit before letting it fall into her hand, already open. "And an empty test tube." She pulled it out for herself to survey.  
"Do you know it's empty?" Naoko curiously studied the vial.  
"No, but I've ran it through my VITaL workshop, and these are the compounds based off of visual analysis." Yada slammed her device onto the ground, producing the holographic interface once more for everyone to see. There they saw examples of NO2, benzene, and toluene.   
"Hm, a very crude combination..." Kat tapped the fallen's phone on her chin studiously. "We'll have to run this by Daniel just to be sure. He'd know if this could be the Bioweapon or not." She declared.  
"Yada, this was Davids' journal?" Miho looked at a few pages before gazing back at her.  
"Yeah. Why?" Yada wondered back.  
"They're filled with microscopic numbers arranged into various boxes and shapes." Miho revealed the book's primary contents.  
"Damnit, he factory-reseted his phone last night. All it has now is some browser history... To a risque site. Ugh, I'll see if the internal storage isn't fully cleared yet." Kat spoke out of turn, removing the battery and SSD out of the back and onto her data-screening machine extension.  
The others blankly stared at their interrupter, then back at the pages. "Hm..." Yada looked a bit dumbfounded herself.  
"Dominoes, maybe? Wait, some of the sides are too highly-valued; nevermind." Naoko shook her head.  
"Wallet's rather run-of-the-mill; traveler brown leather, driver's license, business cards, a cool two-hundred-fifty bucks in cash, several black credit and debit cards, and... An ace of spades?" Bellamy pulled the playing card out.  
The three Japanese ladies all looked at the one-card, then back at each other, having a revelation. "Solitaire cipher!" They all said simultaneously.  
"Whoa, what?" Bellamy was a bit alarmed by their sudden jubilance.   
"His journal is encrypted; every number corresponding to a letter. And he chose the numbers through a cipher of some sorts. It must be that the ace is a clue to revealing the truth to any he trusted it with." Yada explained.  
"Him claiming it was a good luck charm is just a cover-up..." Naoko put her hand to her chin.  
"That's not off reasoning... And if his partners ever got suspicious, he could always have said it was a part of a code for spectrograph testing." Kat theorized. "Well then, we ought to get to cracking that code, huh? I'll get some guides and examples on the algorithm up for you three." She began typing on her keyboard actively again.  
"It's a long diary... We should start on it now." Miho noted one last time as she let all the pages slip past her sifting thumb.  
For several hours, the team worked through finding anything of significance on Davids' smartphone and unraveling the details hidden in his journal. By that point, they have uncovered the first few main passages:

> "Doctors, healers by nature, must abide by what we call a Hippocratic Oath - the promise to do no harm. I have never uttered these words for such bondage, for I am a businessman and biochemist and not a physician. And yet I still feel hypocrisy rain down on me like no other.  
>  It was only ten years ago when I stood alone to bring a chemical dream of the future to life in Kinesthesiz. The company was going to be at the forefront of bringing great change. Glorious change.  
>  And it did, for some time. We brought such groundbreaking stuff to the table - aerosol-based plastic corrosion in water pollution, mobile sterilization rooms for outdoor operations, and vitamin inhalants were among our. But not to last.   
>  Marine biologists refused to work it in major bodies of water out of fear of disintegrating sea life's mutated cells. Sterilization proved to fry deeply contracted skin cells. Vitamin inhalants were believed to be easily tampered and manipulated into providing a more harmful application. Revenue and investors diminished as quickly as they originally came. I was able to keep simple market demands to keep the business limping, and kept hope that some day, other's eyes would be turned to the ideas rather than the money involved.  
>  And if you told me that a year ago, I would reach my deepest low and accept an nine-figures deal to synthesize whatever they've been thinking about with even the most nominal of humanitarian purpose, I would've laughed in your face and had security kick you out of my building, for that would be the opposite of what I said last. It didn't take long to realize that what I was making wasn't something that was going to heal humanity, but regulate it. For some psychopathic warmonger's gain.  
>  I tried my best to dissuade further work, but the roots were too deep by then; they eliminated every scientist who has been on the project for more than a month, and kept cycling in people to complete the synthesis, keeping me alive to save face. Meanwhile, despite their massive cash promise actually coming through, there would be no way to use it to fund a rebuild of Kinesthesiz even if I somehow was no longer involved in whatever this was. Cruel irony - a wannabe Savior, denied such privilege, despite risking all for that purpose..."

With it soon reaching the evening, Naoko stretched out after the latest decoded word. "Man, how I missed investigating street gang crime rings; the clues were always pretty square and had a rather linear direction of who's the offenders. Dealing with the top one percent just isn't in the MoD's cards!" She achingly spoke while doing so.  
"That's usually because most '-illionaires' don't seek to commit aggressive felonies." The CFO commented, spinning her pen along her left thumb.  
"Aha, good point." Naoko finished her back curl.   
"But I'm sure MoD agents do know how to tame redheaded knaves who happen to have responsible gold hearts, do they?" Yada leaned forward and gazed into her best friend's eyes.  
The agent was surprised by the remark, hesitating to speak in turn for the first time.  
"Naoko-san? What's up?" The CFO curiously looked on.  
"About that... Karma and I are taking a break." The field Agent scratched the back of her head uncomfortably.  
"What? What happened?" The ponytailed hazelhead straightened up too. The rest of the KAM personnel could be seen subtly listening in on the matter too, equally intrigued by the drama.  
The chestnut-haired asset slouched back in quick response. "I mean, you knew that we were doing pretty well in the close aftermath of the AssUniv Program's conclusion. We're still naturally fine with live-chatting with each other, which is how we've been able to avoid having to explain or reveal this to anyone. But once we both finished up college and our careers took us to vastly disparate parts of Japan's infrastructure, things started to get hairy. Our hours were constantly keeping us from finding time together, and any chance we did end up in the same room we always seemed to end it with a fight. It doesn't matter what it was about - truthfully, I forget it the very next day."  
"Is it tangible, like a sink of unwashed dishes?" Yada took her friend's hand into her own.  
"No. No, I can recall that much." The held commented.  
"Hm, then it's behavioral most likely." Her mind then flickered. "Oh, has he been changing? You know, personally?"  
"Treading on thin ice there, Yada-san." Naoko playfully warned. "But you know, that could be it." She takes it into deeper thought. "No, hasn't been changing. But it's because of that which is why we're having issues..."  
"Staying the same? So he's resorting to some old junior high delinquent antics?" Yada considered instead.  
"Juvenile, I would say. He tried catching me in an old water bucket door trick, and shock-buzzed a passerby. After helping the poor victim pick up his wallet off the ground!" Naoko explained.  
"The Ministry of Economics has most definitely seen major shifts in the country's balance since the ratifications of many recent, major international reforms. A lot of pressure must be put on their politicians, and we both know how Karma usually deals with such trauma. He's trying to cling onto what trademarked much of his past, simpler life with everything changing so fast." Yada suggested.  
"Hah! A reason - not an excuse. He's a high-ranked official and politician, and thinks he can still get away with menial tricks like that, or all the more able to now that he's reached so high. Yada-san, no doubt I get a small chuckle or two at the more innocent ones well enough, but I also get into a little bout of anxiousness too - All this time, first meeting, hooking up, breaking up, retrying, surviving the toughest shit together, I thought that we both have taken big steps into making this work this time. Deep down, I know he's invested; he's trying as much as I am. But when he pulls stunts like this, it only seems like I have made any compromises for our mutual promise. And how's that fair?" Naoko finished her tirade.  
"I don't disagree, Naoko-san. But you should remember that the iconoclastic, loyal, diamond-in-the-rough Karma is the one you fell in love with. Its rather odd that you're trying to remove all of said qualities." The CFO reminded.  
The agent tilted her head to that remark. "You do have a point there... I wouldn't be against him losing all of his passions; just retool them or something like that." She then gave a light snicker. "Talk of compromise from a Christmas Cake such as myself. Wow, time flies." She grinned deeply.  
"Just a little longer, Naoko-san; Karma will realize what he's missing the most from the past is you." Yada smiled too.  
"Hmm. We will definitely have to look through both of our calendars too to find proper opportunities to spend time together, and make them viable. And as much as I still find it hard to believe, you and Kato-kun may just be the best in long-distance, short-meeting relationships. We probably will be looking to you for pointers when this is all over." Naoko considered.  
Yada bit her lower lip and geared her fingers nervously together. It seems it was now her turn to become incredibly uncomfortable from a random statement being delivered.  
"First he has to show up, though, and then talk all about his grand plan to seize victory. Oh, and I suppose a whole lot of making out with you too every chance you two can get." Naoko quipped.  
Having heard enough, Yada politely rose up and departs from the suite.  
"Uh, Yada? Where are you going?" Naoko followed her movements as she disappeared past the door threshold.  
"Oh, Naoko... You haven't found out yet either..." Kat held her forehead painfully.  
"Found out what?" The MoD agent looked towards the Swede.  
"The Chairman has broken up with Yada. Amicably like yours, of course, but they are no longer intimately promised to each other." Miho declared, with some sense of sadness inherent within her tone.  
"No way." Naoko was bewildered.  
"Way." Bellamy asserted, still looking for secret compartments in the wallet. "Through countless nights sleeping single, understanding the disparate times to contact him via K-Odec, and knowing he's just watching a birthday celebration rather than being a part of it, Miss Yada kept holding on to the more gratifying idea that she would one day be the person who knew everything that was going on in the Chairman's head - at least for a day. But she isn't. Not due to any inabilities of her own, but because Kato isn't letting her. Something keeps scaring our boss, and he doesn't want to share. He hid it/them for so long, that Yada knew enough that he was working to conceal the truth through the same wicked way he plans physical altercations. She signed off from there - in her eyes, it should be much easier to handle a loved one pushing them away." He exposited.  
"God, he's like Karma too... Amnesiac to the lessons he learned while with her." The Agent squinted her eyes.  
"It could be those lessons is why he keeps holding back, Naoko-san. Aside from her desire to get ahead in the business sector, has Kato ever actually got her through major traumatic moments? Kato doesn't believe so, and as such he doesn't want to keep having her tell him how to fix the newest crack in his heart - or why would she need him?" Miho suggested.  
"Either way, he's still being pretty selfish..." Naoko remained a little ticked.  
Meanwhile, Yada takes multiple deep breaths as she reaches the floor's bubbler, hoping to calm down after a quick drink. After getting her fill, she takes a breather leaning on the adjacent wall. _Damnit girl, control yourself!_ She thought. _Everybody's got stake in this, despite their own pressing issues! You need to be strong for them!_ She then took a look up towards the ceiling. _Huh, they're saying they're seeing so much of it right now... I suppose I'm beginning to see it a bit too..._ She lingered on an earlier declaration.  
Abruptly, a slap on the perpendicular wall could be heard across the entire hall. Yada tensed up, looking towards the source with anticipation of a threat. Immediately she goes to her back concealing bag with her right hand for the Hudson, and crouches low on the edge of the corner. A second later, both forces met face-to-face, barrel-to-barrel...  
"Satoshi?!" Yada identified the one behind a HK UCP pointed between her eyes.  
"Oh, Yada." The former JASDF Master Sergeant broke aim first, stowing his sidearm drearily behind his jacket. He notably had a number of smudges and blood-hardened cuts on his body.  
The CFO rose up, returning her pistol to her hiding holster. "You're alive!"  
"Apparently." Satoshi gave his best attempt at deadpan.  
"Well, how?" She continued.  
"Someone must've planted a Semtex time bomb underneath my truck while I was stuck in a red light. I heard the faint beeping as I got into position in one of the remote alleys where it was quiet enough, and knew I was about to be fucked. Immediately jumped out and ran fast as I could, just escaping fatal range. Shockwave made me hit the alley wall and fall behind the dumpster though. On the head, so naturally I was out for a bit." The Captain explained.  
"Understandable. Come on, let's get you cleaned up and bring you up to speed on what's happening."  
"No complaints here." He concluded.  
Yada still retained quite a quizzically conflicted expression on her face as she helped him to their suite.  
Of course, that had to go away once a living, breathing Satoshi was revealed to the rest of the group, who were beyond elated at the revelation. After Miho's patented pampering of the wounded, they wasted no time getting him back on the loop. Naoko and Miho have also nearly completed the cipher, and after some last few contributions from Yada, they read out the remainder of the message once everyone was together.  


> "I don't even know why I write into this thing this way anymore, it's not like I don't know they're just going to suicide me at some point later. I guess I just really needed to get this off my chest immediately, in any way I can find.  
>  To whoever knows how I encrypted this journal, and you would by reading this far, then I say this: Kinesthesiz research on this crazy project has been archived for reference in an unknown secret lab near my vacation home on the Amalfi Coast. I heard about it during one of my latest interactions with the Savior personnel. If this proved helpful in stopping any sort of apocalypse, then maybe my small sense of gratification I have in writing this has been justified." 

"Well, that was pretty on the nose." Naoko folded up the document of the decoded message.  
"Indeed, though said nose was behind two airtight masks." Miho opined.  
"So, we are bound for Italy to stop these 'Saviors?' The tourist destination of Campania?" Yada, arms-crossed, confirmed.  
"Indeed." Kat manipulated the flatscreen using her tablet, showcasing several spots of the Amalfi Coast. "This world heritage site is a long stretch around the Salerno Gulf, and is home to many antique, historic sites dating back to the 12th century. Davids had several photos posted on his RapidGram profile depicting his estate there - according to my mapping algrotihms based of this source material, the mansion is situated on 87 Via Gustavo, flirting on one of the settlement's many cliffsides." She continued to transition between dashboards and photos. "What I'm not gathering here, though is that there's not an educational, industrial, or otherwise non-residential or non-recreational property within two miles of this place. How can they be hiding a secret laboratory nearby?" Kat became puzzled.  
"Any chance Davids could be doing it straight inside the edifice?" Bellamy wondered aloud.  
"It's weird, but I am somehow putting some faith into Davids' written words, and believing he really means it when he says the lab is nearby rather than within. There is a way they're doing it, I know it." The Swede reiterated.  
"Um, guys?" Yada raised her hand rather bluntly to catch their attention. "Maybe you're all a little distracted, but I see a perfect place to hide a lab." She walked towards the screen.  
Naoko grinned at the remark. "Within the cliffs?" She rhetorically asked.  
"Oh, that's brilliant! A billionaire move!" Miho snapped her fingers and pointed.  
"It would be, but the thing is, underneath that mansion is an open alcove - a cave that has been renovated to accommodate boat passages. Tourists on ferries and hang-gliding alike can attest to it being pretty barren and without foreign technologies." Kat showcased a 3D mapping feature, revealing the structure.  
"I have an idea of how this can still be the case. Let's head there first and go from there." Yada announced  
"Alright; everyone all set to depart?" Miho clapped her hands together.  
With that, the team was on their way to another famed destination of Europe. Thanks to Alliance outposts, Yada and Naoko were treated to a more private mode of transportation - a private jet ride, virtually the same as the ones the rest of the crew have been accustomed to in order to travel across the world. An Alliance pilot warmly welcomed them as they arrived at the personal airfield and helped them bring all their gear onto the plane in preparation to depart.  
Clocking in at an expected arrival time within four hours, this was a much briefer voyage than either of the team's previous flights to Nice, but that didn't stop most from finding a chance to rest up and conduct their investigation once they landed. There was even personal cohabitation to be had, with Bellamy and Kat choosing to keep warm by cuddling each other in the rear passenger section. Miho and Satoshi were nearby, taking up their own booths, leaving Naoko to reside in the upper seats.  
Yada, however, could not get her mind off of other details of this ongoing case, actively searching through her VITaL within the concessions bridge between both passenger portions. But after almost half an hour of dead-end searching, she is reduced again to sitting and leaning on a plane wall, only this time she let the device glow underneath her right hand, allowing her to toss up a holographic marker repeatedly in concentrated frustration.  
Naoko suddenly appeared from the front cabin threshold. "Hey there; whatcha doing up so late?" She whispered to the CFO.  
"What are you?" Yada bounced back, letting the utensil dematerialize.  
"Come on, I asked first." Naoko argued, gesturing to sit down right next to her lifelong friend, who complied.  
"Alright..." Yada straightened up to collect her thoughts. "The more deeper we get into this new crisis, more questions are being made. Who killed Davids, for one? Why didn't he confide in anyone else but himself; he most certainly had other friends being a billionaire, right?" The businesswoman then whipped out the rugged test tube. "And then there's this - what could very well be a sample of the virus we have to prevent, and yet we know nothing about how it affects us or why it does."  
Naoko hummed accordingly, then clutched Yada's far shoulder. "All in good time, Yada. We've found in our adventures that the most wanting answers tend to arrive when most opportune. You feel me?" She looked into her eyes.  
"Yeah... The truth of Korosensei, the Tentacles... Numerous planning sequences..."  
"I heard you and he fell out hard." The agent transitioned her hand to a more comforting sequence, wrapping it all around her colleague's head and grasping the close side of her head.  
Yada giggled and pried the arm away. "Yeah... I didn't get what I had hoped for. Personally, of course. That's why, me being on this case is really just professional. He's a CEO, he needs help, the CFO is all but willing to lend a hand."  
"No offense, Y, but I don't believe that for a second." Naoko scoffed.  
"Well, I can't force you to change beliefs, so I don't know what you want me to do hearing that." Yada really laughed this time, lightly punching her peer's shoulder, who copied the chortle.  
After a few seconds, the MoD asset turned serious. "You know I've got your back on this. And I don't mean this mission." She reminded.  
"I know. But you don't have to be; there's no real enmity between us." Yada assured her.  
"I could figure." Naoko then looked up to the roof. "You've definitely picked up a few tics of his. Like having a number of backup plans and revisions." She relayed her observations.  
"Is that right? Well, nothing on his level, I reckon. Anyways, I wouldn't shy away from any things I've learned, even from sources now sour; that's not a way of moving on." Yada acknowledged.  
"How mature of you, AssUniv's big sis." Naoko coyly remarked.  
"Oh, now you're really trying to get on my nerves." Yada took her turn to playfully choke her friend this time.  
"Hm, good idea! We should both put each other to sleep!" Naoko went with the joke.  
The CFO then lets go. "Yeah, maybe some rest will do us the most good now." She then rose up. "Thanks, Naoko. I feel like I really needed this. A one-on-one with a non-KAM for once. Miho's amazing and all, but perhaps too amazing. You're really bringing me down to Earth." She bowed.  
"To think you don't see the same amount of amazing in me..." Naoko crossed her arms with a pout. "Alright, we'll be at Amalfi before long. We should really get some shuteye." She gave a quick arm-raising stretch and moved towards the front with Yada in front... Though they didn't advance for too long. "Hm? Yada?" She noticed her friend's hesitation, and then looked forward. "!!" The Agent then attempted to quickly pull out her Beretta Ninety-2 from across her left shoulder holster.  
"Ah ah ah." The hostile spoke in a low tone, moving slightly in the shade towards her (to the right of the equally frozen Yada) with his UCP.  
Naoko sighed coarsely as she relinquished the attempt and held out her hands in surrender.  
"Both of you, one at a time, toss your guns onto that foldout bed over there." He gestured, soon seeing the Ninety-2 and H9 on top of it. "Good girls." He complimented ironically.  
"What's this about, turncoat? In bed with the Saviors?" Yada suggested quietly with venom on her tongue.  
"When I first joined up with this Kato Alliance, back when it was only a Family, I was told there were no limits to our decrees, and therefore, no threat to our authority. For all that time, I stuck by the Oyabun-turned-Chairman because he followed through on what I believed in, showing everybody that might indeed make right. But what happens next? He almost dies, and the whole world is coming to shambles over his failure! There's a new force in the world, greater than Kato, and it will be deciding the order of things from now on." He commented.  
"Seriously? That's your reason for betraying Kato-kun, little shitstain? Because he wasn't the baddest good guy in the land?" Naoko condescendingly remarked.  
"Shut up, you little wench. He promised he'd never lie to us, like he did for the two of you, as well as your friends. He promised a more just world, and instead gave us one more volatile than before. It really shakes the bones when you find who's been holding everything together wasn't so thorough and rigid as you believed." The traitor further explained. "And now, I'm defecting to the Kingslayers. Get it? Because a king died?"  
"Things weren't always going to go well - you knew that signing on. You're just bandwagoning success as it coasts on by." Yada scoffed to the side. "It's both such a big surprise how you got through the fifty-layer background check to be standing here and now. Not to mention a colossal shame for yourself." She remained relatively undeterred from the gunpoint.  
"Just shut up, the both of you!" He whispered aggressively. "Your boy is dead. But don't worry your little heads about it, young ladies. Once the Kingslayers have you and finish their work, you're going to soon join him. Just like her and the three sleeping on this jet will." He proclaimed smugly, keeping his aim trained on them.  
Wide-eyed, Yada and Naoko look at each other, and then back at their interrogator.   
_Naoko, my purse... Get behind me and take it._ Yada spoke to Naoko silently through gazes and minor lip movements.  
 _What? No way; he's going to shoot you!_ The agent's eyes told the story.  
 _Just do it. Please._ Yada turned back to the gunman upon forced conclusion.  
"How very dramatic and ambitious of you, young shitstain. But if you really believe all that bile you just spat, you know not at all who've you been working under for that great time." Naoko sharpened her eyes, adding a little beam to it.

Yada continued from where she left off. "And when Kato-kun gets his hands on you and your new employers..."  
The man, pistol still trained on the ladies, nevertheless showed some discomfort at the latest string of phrases.  
"He's going to eat all of you alive." She finished taunting, after which she dashed to the right to bring her body in front of Naoko's, turning towards her too.  
The turncoat fired at the now-moving Yada, hitting her in the shoulder blade behind her heart.  
"KYAH!" Yada screamed after the impact, falling onto Naoko. The MoD asset managed to unhook the pistol - a SIG P320 Compact, and fired hip-level at the gunman's chest, causing him to fall back too from a Shock-Out round.  
"YADA!" Naoko screamed her lifelong friend's name, turning her over to see if she was struck fatally. She didn't get a good look, however, before she noticed the gunman grumbling back up; the faint bullethole on his torso reveals why; a KAM bulletproof, and more importantly shock-resistant vest. She tried for the head this time, but he was just a bit faster, aiming down close to the agent's head. Naoko just manages to pull her head back, forcing a sight break and retreat to the kitchen area.  
"Damnit!" The pilot tactically reloaded his UCP and tossed a strange explosive into the area. Naoko instinctively went for a platter cover and placed it on top to contain the blast (knowing it wasn't a fragementation grenade due to the nature of being on a plane), but that still proved ineffective. That was because the throwable in question was a Micro-Pulse grenade; a device that emits a brief, high-intensity blast of microwaves, which stun opponents and disrupt their technology in a similar, but longer-lasting way than EMPs. This results in Naoko losing her KAM AtTac Suit and knocking her over with a shaken mind.   
She grips her forehead in an attempt to recover on the floor, as the gunman creeps above her, aiming down at the back of her head. He was about to deliver the coup de grace, until Miho, one of the many to wake up from the sudden fight, tackling the pilot back into the front cabins with enough force to remove him from his pistol. She then delivers a quick right cross to his chin, pushes him down into a powerbomb set-up, and then gutwrenches him up to the ceiling, letting him fall back onto his face thanks to gravity, knocking him out.  
"We're clear, everyone!" Miho looked back, telling a still in-cover Kat, Satoshi, and Bellamy. She then noticed the involuntarily-supine Yada, and her heart skipped a beat. "YADA!" She too screamed out. The rest of the team, including a recovering Naoko being picked up by Satoshi, swiftly joined up.  
"Eeegh..." Yada still looked to be in great pain.  
"She got shot in the upper back." Naoko shook her head clear.  
"Don't move, Yada. Let me see..." The former JGSDF carefully turned the CFO around to inspect. Kat held both of her hands over her mouth with absolute worry.  
That was also when the smushed projectile fell out with almost a clean whistle. And without any blood. Immediately, all of the Kato Alliance members sighed with relief.  
"Oh, thank goodness..." Kat now relievingly held her heart.  
Yada giggled, still with some discomfort.  
"You really gave us a scare, Miss Yada." Bellamy looked up with fatigue.  
"Whoa whoa whoa, how are you alright?" Naoko came closer, lifting up Yada's two shirts with care to see the hitpoint; there was a patch of KAM AtTac armor all over her upper back. "What?"  
"Mk. IV's special feature, Naoko." Yada struggled a bit to turn around. "Remember that my armor could just cover my hands and feet? I can make the close accessories release just enough to cover certain parts. I used that to protect the both of us."  
Naoko sighed pleasantly. "Thanks." She shook her head again. "To think, I signed on hoping to protect you, and yet just now, it was the other way around." She observed.   
"You're essential too, Naoko. That's part of why I did that." She smiled. Naoko grinned back in response, even going to embrace her in a sisterly manner for the courtesy.  
"Alright, well, I suppose I have to land this plane. We're not going to be much longer to Italy now." Satoshi gazed at the cockpit and went towards it. Naoko, cuddling Yada still, looked on, witnessing Miho and Bellamy restrain the turncoat, and Kat taking his equipment for inspection.


	5. Matter Before, Matter After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A turncoat of a pilot was found within KAM! After dealing with this little detour, the team has to wrap up their business in the Amalfi so that they can find out further about the objectives of the one manipulating the now-deceased Davids. Lord only knows what they will happen upon in the CEO's laboratory, though...

More than three hours later, the private jet arrived in an airfield on the southern regions of Italy. Miho is the last to leave the aircraft, with the dastardly pilot hoisted on her shoulder, bound by nylon zip ties on his wrists and ankles. In addition, he was attempting to yell through his OTM gag.  
"No, you don't get to speak, pint-sized bastard. There will be a special place to dump your sorry ass with the rest of the Savior scum when we foil their plans too." She asserted over his muffled exclaims, descending down the staircase and encountering the rest of the team.  
"Put her down, Miho; Bellamy, Kat, and myself will personally attend to this guy. You and the other mistresses take the truck and head into town, find out the mysteries of Davids' other lab." Satoshi requested, accepting taking the captured mole now beside him.  
"Don't take too long catching up." Naoko waved goodbye to them as they started moving away, which Kat gleefully answered in kind. When the novelty passed, Naoko immediately looked back to Yada. "You sure you're still good to go? The bullet from earlier still left a depression that is now swelling up a bit. You also said you couldn't fully layer the targeted area either, so you could be dealing with a collarbone dent." She spoke with preoccupation over her former classmate.  
"I'm fine, okay? Thank you for the worry, but the worst that happened was my RockTape tore up." She assured the Agent, holding her hand in her own to reinforce the statement.  
"Naoko, you probably know a bit of what it's like to get definitively shot, right? Well it's definitely not a breeze, but someone who's been going through my regime doesn't bow out from any one bullet." Miho slapped the MoD asset's back endearingly. "Now, let's head to the Coast." She declared, taking the driver's seat of the Chevy Silverado.  
A ten-minute drive later, the trio of ladies made it into the bright, lively, refreshing town.  
"Wow... No wonder this site is recognized as a heritage by UNESCO." Yada marveled from the shotgun seat, noticing the bell tower belonging to the municipality's eponymous cathedral.  
"Man, when I was being sent on worldly missions, if I had known how this place looked in-person, I would've made any excuse to take an assignment here." Naoko opined.  
"Me and Keitaro are surely going to buy a Summer estate here, when we both retire." Miho remarked as well. "Everything's really tranquil, yet still rather vigorous." She cut a corner on the road. "So, Naoko, where is Via Gustavo in this settlement?"  
"It's on the Northern cliffsides - the outskirts of the municipality." The agent informed, making sure of the location using a rugged GPS.  
A rhythmic five-string of beeps could be heard from within the vehicle.  
"My bluetooth's ringing, and not from Kat or the others..." Yada pulled out her earpiece from her purse, having not put it back on after the conclusion of the air commute.  
"It couldn't possibly be Kato, finally here to speak further about the plan and the Kingslayers?" Naoko slouched on the window sill of her close door.  
"We'll see." Yada brushed some of her hair away from her left ear and pressed the answering key. "Brass Ringleader." She identified herself by codename - one that perplexed Naoko for a bit.  
"Hey! It's DEAn. You know, D-E-A, and n." A masculine, latino voice answered.  
"Going secure." Yada then twisted on a small dial on her earpiece before continuing. "Alvarez, good to hear from you."  
"Yada, to you as well. I analyzed the data and tests of the unknown substance you acquired during your last op from Miss Nylen. You are right, none of the compounds present pose any obvious threat, at least on an apocalyptic scale. But what I did find is that reaction is irrelevant to this mixture; it's what person wants to throw through it that kills." He explained.  
"Throwing through it?" Yada squinted her eyes in focus of that statement.  
"The molecular structures are carefully placed in the gas so that when a radio wave passes through, it bounces off of each one at incredible speeds going through. This causes their wavelengths to diminish very swiftly and drastically - from the typical 100 kilometers to just one meter. And when the waves move through our brains... That's when funny things happen."  
"How funny?" Yada asked.  
"Deathly funny. But since radiation is always a mysterious mistress, there's no telling how quickly it kills you, nor how unless you use it on live subjects." Alvarez's tone became even more ghastly.  
"Fair enough. We knew it was going to be a cataclysmic issue coming in. Now we know it requires an EM wave to activate. Thanks for the information."  
"Good luck, Yada. You, Miho, and the rest." The former DEA agent signed off, cutting the conversation.  
Yada pulled off her bluetooth with some effort. "Dr. Alvarez has informed us that the bioweapon activates through sound, though the catalysts are ones we cannot hear with our naked ears. Effects on humans or animals is unknown at this point." She informed the other two.  
"Ah, I should've thought about that from prior experiences." Naoko looked a little disappointed with herself. "The Ministry has recently been looking into NATO assignments against terrorists that can activate bombs through the snap of the fingers."   
"Well, they certainly didn't get the discontinued model from KAM." Miho remarked.  
"Wait, you guys have made those?" Naoko widened her eyes and leaned forward into the front seats.  
"We did make them, with the intent to snuff out the more volatile of our customers and neutralize them, but Kato didn't want to show such alarming products on his share of the market. I was already on the fence for the same reason, so I didn't want to go through with it either. So it was shelved." Yada explained further.  
Naoko could only scoff. "Well, don't let Karasuma know about it. He's going to hound down on KAM again. You remember last time, right?"  
"Last time was him busting a truly legitimate deal with Lockheed Martin because he thought I was in danger. The endgame of that resulted in MoD desperately requiring munitions from us because they think that everyone in the Agency was as crazy as their Chief of Air Staff. He really needs to chill." Yada physically waved the caution down.  
"Hm, can't disagree there. That was when Irina was out on assignment in Abu Dhabi, too busy to keep his overprotection in line." She slouched back into her chair uneasily.  
"Hmhmm, remember when you were like that with Kato, Miho?" Yada turned to the Alliance Captain with a smirk.  
"I have no idea, what you're talking about." Miho obfuscated ignorance and taking a much tighter turn, causing Yada to smack her forehead on the top window sill.  
"Ouch!" The CFO rubbed her forehead.  
"Oh look at that, I guess I'm not doing my life-sworn job well enough. Guess I got to up the ante." Miho flippantly continued.  
Yada looked rather impressed by Miho's blunt snark.  
Minutes later, the trio arrived in the neighborhood of Davids' estate, finding said edifice soon afterwards. They all did a quick scoping around as they passed by it, for any security measures, witnesses, and places of entry if it required street-level infiltration.  
"Quite befitting of a billionaire; staff and security are still aplenty, keeping the house functional and standing." Miho recalled, leaning on the wheel. The pickup truck was now parked on a street two blocks away.   
"The house stands alone on that particular arc of the cliff, and the sheer height to reach it from behind is covered by some drones buzzing above. No way we'll pass as Italians or Latinos if we were to seek staff disguises, so it looks like we have no quiet options to take it on during the day, and must wait for nighttime." Naoko elaborated.  
"Hm, that's not an option either; no doubt Davids' partners would anticipate that. We need to strike quickly. And if it's not through the house, then we must find another way in." Yada's mind flickered. "Miho, you thinking what I am?"  
"I am. This is perhaps the best opportunity to test it out." Miho smiled.  
"What is it, you two?" Naoko moved up to their section.   
"We're going to deploy one of the ultimate reconnaissance devices." Yada confirmed, stepping out of the truck's passenger seat and going to the open trunk. She climbed inside, unstrapped a strongbox from the mound, and opened it. Within was a box-shaped remote control, and a metal capsule. Yada then began calibrating the handheld to her earpiece before finally tossing the sphere into the air. The capsule detonated into two halves and revealed a flying insect within. "Naoko, let me introduce you to the Dragonfly-Bot. I know, we have to work more on its name." She spoke to her lifelong friend.  
"A flying drone?" The Agent leaned forward while inspecting further from outside.  
Miho closed her driver door. "A nigh-untraceable one, due to its size. It is fitted with the same microcameras that are employed for use by AssUniv KAM AtTac Suits. Plus, the entire machine was constructed using a self-healing polymer that resembles the chitin of the flying insect, so even specific vision faculties cannot reliably identify this as a threat." She continued on.  
"Very nice. So how will it help us get into the Biolab?" Naoko put her hand to her chin.  
"Since we know that there is an opening on the side of the cliff facing the waters that brings light to the facility, we can use that as the bot's entry point. And while we listen in on the conversations of the scientists within, we can find the alternate, remote entrances to the underground domain." Yada planned out.  
"How do you know there are any alternate entrances into the biolab?" Naoko held her hip.  
The CFO scoffed. "Well then, Naoko, that confirms you've never tried to run a regional business on your own!" She refocused. "When the staff takes out the trash, do you want them to bring it through the front door? No way; mucks up your entrance no matter how well-tied it is! You bring it through the back, or the side if you have corridors. And we know too that Davids wasn't going to let the waste be dumped out the alcove, because the Amalfi population would surely petition an investigation as to why their waters are suddenly getting so much hazardous chemicals." She noted.  
"Hm, makes sense." Naoko considered the refute.  
"Alright, now to bring it out there. Help us find an entry way, girl." Yada prompted the drone before manipulating the joysticks to direct it back towards the site. A few seconds later.  
Naoko climbed up to the truck's trunk to take a look at the LED screen as well. "You know, we are a little more than fifty meters from the bottom coastline; winds here are too strong for ordinary critters to fly. So if you're really mimicking a dragonfly, how's it handle this elevation so well?" She wondered aloud once more, watching the micro cameras peek over one unrelated roof to bring the Davids estate into view.  
"The self-healing polymer, when moving at the high speeds necessary to sustain flight and mimic a true dragonfly's wings, is also programmed to secrete a drag-reduction agent. Takes care of the turbulence problem with ease." Miho nodded while responding.  
"Flanking the estate on the East side now..." Yada, seemingly ignoring the extra query having heard many, commented, carefully continuing to guide the Bot around the building, eventually finding the edge of the cliff and hovering past it. The drone continues to hug the jagged side until it finds the cave opening they were looking for. "There it is." Yada observed.  
"Indeed. And look; a light particle-bending generator. The same kind as those ones that Spec-Ops assets in forests use to mask their campsites from sky view. Just as we expected." Naoko pointed to the corner of the screen.   
"Hiding in semi-plain sight." Miho leaned on the vehicle chassis.  
"Entering in slowly... Turning on the mic now." Yada acknowledged, flipping a switch. Her bluetooth is treated to the distant combination of clinking objects and miscellaneous conversations between guards and scientists. "Oop, forgot to focus up. Hang on..." Yada then twisted her left earring's clasp, changing the vocal range to only human peripheral. The Dragonfly-Bot continued its flight trajectory over an arrangement of mechanical and plastics equipment workstations, zeroing in on pairs and trios for whatever they might be discussing.  
"Somebody really needs to take Needs down a peg; he fucking snatched my sub again." One whitecoat commented to a sentry. Clearly not from Italy, he spoke with American English.  
"I concur. He just sees the lot of us as lifting crew." The guard reinforced.  
The drone then moved on to another doctorate looking through an advanced electron microscope, as another chats at his side, coffee in hand.  
"What's up with Bell recently? He's been locking himself within his personal analysis center lately." The off-duty researcher asked.  
The other did not look away from his bifocal lenses while replying. "He's probably still anxious over the mountain of A-level-secure data and documentation that was shipped to our doorstep just a few days ago."  
"Why wouldn't he make some exceptions? Divide the load between us?" The first bounced back.  
"And let you take any of the credit? You know those senior leads are senile and egotistic." The second remained focused on his work.  
"Hm, so that means no ordinary scientist here is going to know about the bioweapon Kinesthesiz was developing." Yada lightly scratched her chin.  
"Well duh, they've been cycling those engineers for a while now. Only the best keep going, which would explain Dr. Bell here's fears." Naoko remarked, practicing manifesting just the hood and mask of her KAM AtTac suit.  
"Oh so you and me aren't worthy, but Mr. Big Shot Nakajima or whatever it is his best buddy?"  
The second finally broke off his investigation and turned to his colleague. "Look, I hate the newcomer too. But it's not our place to discuss these matters right now. We impress here, then we can be just like them." He returned to his work, waving his colleague away, who reluctantly complies.  
"Looks like we should be on the lookout for one Dr. Bell or his entrusted Dr. Nakajima." Yada reiterated.  
"We'll worry about that once we get in. So let's find an entrance now." Miho looked up to the CFO.  
"Right, of course." She continued to fly the drone, only a little higher this time to keep out of focus from everybody else from now on. After a few wrong turns toward lavatories, storage areas and other variants of dead ends, they finally found a viable threshold.  
This method saw them tail a patrolling Kinesthesiz guard to a branching pathway that was by that point far away from the estate while underground. He nodded to a stationary sentinel guarding just in front of said doorway, and then passed through, bringing light briefly into the passage. The Dragonfly-Bot quickly flew through the ajar positioning to find out where it was; a small cemetery for the settlement.  
Yada then pivoted the microcameras of the drone to look at the signs for this graveyard. "I recognize this arch. We passed by it from across two blocks. while heading towards Davids'." She noticed.  
"Nothing like keeping your biggest secrets behind the gates to the dead." Miho took a sip from a bottled water.  
"The appearance of the door suggests that this is being used as a front for a gravetender's workstation. Even that's seen some fair use for local crime syndicate missions; most local police don't like suspect their departed." Naoko now was the one holding her chin. "So, we found our way. We're going to run into trouble with that lone guard though if we just sneak through there; we have to fool him into unlocking the door for us." She advised.  
"No problem. We still have our Throw Voice machines. We'll tail the man to a secluded corner, or lure him towards one, force a replication of his voice, and use it to make the other open the door for us. Then we silently take him out and sneak through from there." Yada answered as she began flying the drone back to their location.  
"Let's not waste any time then." The oldest woman cracked her neck with a tile.   
The trio then drove back down the hills and toward the Amalfi town, rediscovering the cemetery, and finding the lone guard roaming about, watching the public entrance and any pedestrians within. Naoko sees a standalone building's fire escape above an adjacent corridor to the mortuary, and parkoured her way up there, pulling out some construction appliances. Yada Miho meanwhile got into position that put her marginally within view of the guard, and Yada hid in between two dumpsters anticipating his arrival.  
After peering quickly into a mausoleum in case of any thieves/spies, the guard then heard foreign drilling. He quickly looked beyond the walls of the small graveyard, unable to find the source. Again, the sound of metal perforation reverberated, and the sentinel knew it wasn't a part of any regular construction team - which meant he had to believe it was something suspicious for the operation. He also noticed Miho at the outside corner of the perimeter, appearing to be speaking to her jacket's far lapel. She then quickly eyes the faraway guard, looks surprised, and fully cuts the corner. Now realizing it is against their objectives, the guard brings his hand to his holster, gripping a Glock 22 within the leather casing. Cutting the same corner and reaching the same byway, he does not see the same obscure woman, but the drilling sounds persisted across the next brick vertex.  
The guard braves a further investigation, not realizing that his latest was his last. Abruptly, he is treated to his mouth being forcibly kept shut; interestingly, nothing visible looks to be doing such, until the active camouflage dies down and reveals a forcible left hand. Some sort of metal device is prodded into his back.  
When the rest of the KAM AtTac suit deactivated Octo-Ink, it was revealed through the color of the eyes and bangs parting that the aggressor was Yada. She then transitioned her left hand to cup his neck, while keeping her armed right hand at prodding the sentinel's back. _Feel that extra bump on my palm? That's a .4 amp taser disk. Do anything but what I say, and it'll scorch your larynx and make you unable to speak and forever drinking your food. Understand?_ She explained in whisper to the man.  
The guard hesitated for a second before getting his hand away from his sidearm and raising it in surrender.  
_Speak the name of your colleague behind the door you had just passed._ She ordered.  
"Bressi." He uttered.  
_Now tell me how you convince him to open the door._ She continued.  
"Knock on the door from top, bottom, left, right, and middle." He further capitulated.  
_Is that credible?_ She requested confirmation.  
"Of course." He sighed.  
_Thank you._ Yada patted the sentinel on his chest with her left hand, then released the threatening object from his back, which was revealed to be just a stapling hammer when she presented it to him across his other shoulder. She delivered a coup de grace in the form of smashing the pommel on a fleshy part of his clavicle, knocking him out. Yada caught him before he fell, dragging him into a secluded nook of an alleyway door.  
Naoko hopped down from the raised scaffolding. "You got what we needed?" She questioned, while Miho came back from behind the second corner.  
"Plenty of it. Let's get into that facility." Yada answered back, prying a Throw Voice machine loose from the stapling hammer while doing so. They reached the strongdoor in the renovated cemetery, where Naoko held up the audio-recording gadget to the handle of the threshold, presenting the identification of guard's name on the other side.  
"Caproni?" The guard confusingly identified his fallen comrade. He then began speaking in rather swift Italian.  
_Took Spanish and French. What's he saying?_ Naoko looked to Yada and murmured.  
 _Hardly an idea. Something about some surprise? Not about timing of entry though, I think._ Yada expressed her marginal bewilderment.  
 _I learned it - he's wondering if this is about a surprise birthday celebration._ Miho spoke with a straight face.  
The guard spoke over them again, this time with a more condescending tone, relating to a lack of a proper answer.  
_Maybe we should just certify our entry..._ Yada knocked in the pattern described by Caproni. This resulted in Bressi confiding in the answer and unlocking the door. He stuck his head out while pushing it, allowing Miho flanking the non-hinged side to pull all of him out of the cave, and smashing his head into the adjacent stone wall, knocking him out clean.  
The female trio all pooled into the corridor and Naoko closed the door behind him. _Alright ladies, discretion is fully key now. Suit up._ The MoD asset noted, with them all manifesting their armors. They then took to the ceilings, using EM-Traverse to cling on the opposite surface and proceeded.  
_Keep an eye out for a label for either Dr. Bell of Dr. Nakajima. They're our best bets to bringing us to the data._ Yada reminded.  
 _Roger roger._ The Alliance Captain acknowledged, adding an extra word for Naoko's sake.   
The girls trekked across the passage's top limit, following it until reaching the main sections of the secret facility. From there, they all stalked several, lower-card researchers, transitioning to others that passed them by with the idea being that eventually one would say something about where one of their prime targets were.   
_Guys, this guy saw Dr. Nakajima go and get a coffee on the South end of this biolab. We should make haste to there now._ Naoko whispered into her comms system, informing the other two about the development. They all sneakily leaped from ledge to ledge and from cover to cover before locating the scientist in question. As they could gather from his surname, he was indeed a Japanese man in Europe. But they were nonetheless surprised by his very foreign visage.   
_He's... Much younger than I expected a lead researcher to be._ Yada noted, observing the Doctor's fresh, sharp face behind his specs. He also boasted a short fauxhawk pointed directly upward; judging by the color closest to the scalp, he naturally was a dark sienna, with blond-dyed front tips. He was shorter than most of the guards and scientists seen so far, and otherwise not incredibly imposing.  
_Must be one of those boy geniuses, like Kato-ani. Agh, shame he's on the wrong side; the Alliance would never speak against giving the gifted a shot._ Miho reasoned. _Shall we continue tailing then?  
But of course._ Yada nodded.  
For the next two minutes, they stayed on Nakajima's tail as he returned to the private research centers, with him none the wiser. He picks out one towards the center of the spread, and unlocks the door.  
_No way we'll get through that gap. How will we get in there?_ Naoko asked.  
_Let's use a mute charge and get in through the filtration vents._ Miho stated, pulling out a miniature plastic explosive. She attached pieces of the mound onto the four screws, which blew the heads of the modified nails right off. Naoko quietly pulled the fluted appliance off the wall and allowed them all to take up the three-room center's roof. They finally located him in the second room, typing onto a computer surrounded by several test tube racks and observation equipment.  
_Beginning kernel operations copy of the terminal now..._ Yada stated, typing silently on her InReTs screen to piggyback the device. While it passively broke through the military-grade firewalls, they continued to observe Nakajima as he continued to conduct his research on a currently unknown subject. One thing caught the CFO's eye towards the end of the spying - the doctor then pulled out one test tube from a drawer; the sound it made guaranteed it to the three of them that is was just lying down dangerously in that section. He held it up close, but to the side of his face, practically showing it to the others. _T-that's the bioweapon!  
_The doctor then looked aside nonchalantly...  
_!!_ The trio remained vigilant, with Miho having her hand on a Five-seveN just in case.  
But Nakajima was merely looking towards his reflection on the window between the entrance and the observation room, given that he was walking towards it. "This will change everything. It will bring about a new world. It will incite fear into the dying hearts, but bravery in those that survive. That, which we have no large amount. Not yet, anyways..." He expanded upon his soliloquy, tapping the end of the test tube onto the glass.  
_Clearly gone mad._ Naoko remarked in whisper.  
_Got it._ Yada acknowledged, looking onto her forearm to see what research the researcher has been looking into.  
The scientist then looked onto his presumed pager, and pressed on a button at the top.  
_What the-!?_ Yada was bewildered when she sees a new window pop up on the screen.  
  


## Nice Try.

  
The computer then fired off a microwave pulse, not unlike the one a traitorous pilot detonated on the plane ride earlier, scrambling the servos of the ladies' KAM AtTac Suits. With EM-Traverse disabled, they all dropped back to the ground - on their feet naturally.  
Nakajima slowly turned around to see the three as their Octo-Ink dissipated and the suit's nanomachines slowly retracted back to where they came from. "And this, is what you're looking for, yes?" He noted.  
"So you knew that an infiltration was pending a second time. That doesn't take a genius." Naoko condescendingly spoke. "Not to mention, you didn't plan this fully through; you're on your own, against an assassin, a secret agent, and a soldier. Not looking good for your chances."  
Nakajima slammed the test tube onto the ground, shattering it. "Am I?" He bounced back.  
"What? You're not protected to the bioweapon!" Miho, who pulled out her pistol, reacted.  
"Nobody is. But we're not exposed to it right now."  
"Empty tube. What for?" Yada, with her H9 trained on the scientist, inquired.  
"Ah just for the Hell of it. But like I said - not alone." Nakajima repeated, which put deep thought into Yada's mind.  
"Don't worry; when we're done with you, we're going to utterly thrash whoever else is on your side." Naoko pounded her fist.  
"Wait." Yada held her free hand in front of Naoko. She began breathing frantically. "Outplanning Kato in an infiltration mission... Assassinating Davids and make us look like a target... Allowed a turncoat to be piloting us to Italy... Not here helping us invade the Lab... And knew just what type of microwave would disable our suits." She looks at Nakajima with shocked eyes. "You couldn't have done all of this. Unless you had help from inside!" She concluded. Naoko and Miho turned to her, realizing exactly what she meant.  
A lab coat closet directly behind the three opens up, revealing the un-aloner in Nakajima's mix. With surprise on his side, he immediately pushes Naoko at the center into Miho, disarms Yada with a back elbow to her face and an arm twist, turned her towards the recovering duo in a hostage headlock and pointed the H9 at them.  
Miho returned her aim at the situation, though it trembled once she could process it. "Ka- Kazuhiro...!"   
Kato's older cousin, strangely emotionless, does not react to the identification.  
"What are you doing here?" Her voice cracked.  
Kazuhiro didn't speak, only wrench his hold on Yada further, who yelped at her compressed larynx.  
"What did you do?!" Miho shivered while yelling.  
"Enough. Lay down your arms. Or she dies." Nakajima disrobed from his lab coat. "And if you tell by how stonecold Kazuhiro-san is right now, you know he's going to do it." He reminded. "But let's just add a little more incentive." Nakajima gestured to another closet.  
Satoshi revealed himself this time, with a HK UCP pointed at the two other ladies.  
"Tsuchiya... You've been with them?" Naoko was dumbfounded now too.  
"What happened to Nylen and Bellamy?!" Miho demanded to know. Tsuchiya refused to answer, however.  
"Last chance. Come on now - we all know how this ends." Nakajima crossed his arms condescendingly.  
Naoko and Miho all kept their aims trained for an extended time, before capitulating, dropping their FN and Beretta respectively.  
"Very good. Now, Satoshi." Nakajima directed.  
The former JASDF fired Shock-Out rounds from the German pistol; two for Naoko and eight for Miho. They both writhed on the ground a bit before passing out; something Yada involuntarily had front-row seats to witnessing.  
"W-why?" Yada winced while speaking.  
"For change." Kazuhiro finally spoke. He then pushed Yada forward, stumbling her a bit for a Shock-Out to the back of her head. She falls right before her other colleagues, as the second turncoat stands over them with his new partner.  
"God, women can be so whiny sometimes. And they always think they're in control of everything. That's why it always feels nice to throw a bit of reality in their faces, hm?" Nakajima arrogantly remarked, putting an elbow on Tsuchiya, who merely looked at him in response. The reaction made the researcher retract his limb awkwardly, all the while Kazuhiro plays the third man, shaking his head.


	6. Matter of Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, the Amalfi Coast job didn't do too well, did it?
> 
> Yada, Naoko, and Miho are going to want to do something about that. And if they need some help, well, someone's yet to show up...

-Hours later...-  
"Ehhhgh..." Yada squints her closed eyes as she awakens. Finally opening them up, she finds something on her face.   
"MMHF?!"  
Several strips of duct tape kept her mouth shut. She instinctively tried for her hands to pry them off, but they too were restrained - behind her, above her elbows and around her wrists (for extra measure, Yada's fingers were taped into mittens). Yada couldn't pivot her head down either; a collar connected to a leash that was in turn connected to her arm bindings compressed when the cable's length was outstretched, choking her. She opted instead to just look down, finding her legs nowhere - because they were forced to bend back behind her in turn, ankles bound and positioned closely to her hands. But then, how was her body above the ground? She looked up and got her answer - a ceiling cable suspending her.  
"HNGH!" Yada continued to try and wrest herself free, but only continued to strangle herself. Her eyes then rolled skeptically around the room, realizing that Naoko and Yada were not with her. Her spirits to be released resurfaced with that in mind, but again, she gagged behind her... Gag, due to the flailing that came with it.   
A few more minutes of slowly observing her bondage later, a door before her opened. Nakajima was the first to step out from the threshold opening her way. Knowing better now than to show vibrant aggression, her eyes merely sharpen at him.  
"Well well, you're awake. Could be likely that your friends are too. Don't worry, by the way." The scientist holds his chest with an open palm. "They're alive. Safe even. At least, as safe as you are." He noted.  
"NNNPF!" Yada growled at him.  
"Okay okay, I see that you're upset. You don't want to see me. That's cool. I wasn't too big on seeing you either. But there is someone else who is. Come on in!" Nakajima looked back outside and prompted. A couple seconds later, the second came in.  
Yada's eyes widened in disbelief.  
"Hello there." A voice speaking Japanese, albeit with an American accent, greeted. Davids, alive and well, without a hole in his torso. Nakajima saluted and went out, closing the door behind him. "Surprised? Miss me?" The CEO of supposedly-formerly Kinesthesiz asked the suspended CFO of Kato Arms and R&D Manufacturing.  
"Hnf?" She responded.  
"I take it you're wondering how I know Japanese. That's easy; Nakajima taught me." He remarked.  
"Hng nngh?" She added on, to the best of her ability.  
"Oh and now you're wondering why I'm alive, before you now, and allied with that fake Dr. Nakajima, huh?" Davids then squared up, bringing his face close to hers in the most intimidating way he could muster. "Because of a decoy that Satoshi shot instead of me for the first thing. And for the second, this world sucks!" He yelled.  
Yada's eyes, pupils slightly dilated, showcased both confusion and bewilderment.  
Davids stepped back and turned around, preparing for his side monologue. "This world thinks it knows everything it wants... So much so, that they would turn down any other option in a heartbeat. Without a second thought. You read all about it, didn't you? The germ meant to dissolve harmful metal debris in our precious waters? Laughed out of UNESCO because they said there was no way anyone could be certain it wouldn't affect the metal of transports people were traveling on! Afraid I may also target marine species who have ingested such substances too! Spray-on immunities proved too heated for some of the more sensitive customers! Vitamin inhalants were claimed to be too easy to tamper, replacing medicines with poisons and endangering user's lives! What the fuck is all this!?" Davids, having enough of his own speech, turned back violently and throwing a pen out of his pocket, with it flying to the side of Yada.  
"This world is so damn afraid of moving on, as you can tell. Every time you offer up something life-altering, even if it most certifiably is for the better of everyone's lives, the commanders of the ivory combat towers stamp it to the ground! I used up all the fortune I had in a desperate bid to show the good of my company's fruits. But no... I should've realized this sooner. You know about the Articles of Confederation?" He interrogated.  
The CFO blinked twice in response.  
"It was America's first attempt at bringing together its founding states just after claiming their independence from the British Empire. Because of their great domestic disputes and lack of collective thought however, this document was made to preserve such sovereignty to all of its entities, leaving a rather trivial central government. Officials soon realized this after ratification, and set up multiple assemblies to revise it. But there's no point changing something nobody could agree upon, as many of them also found out. Hence came the Constitution; a document that quite literally bent the will of its subjects to force new mindsets that favored the executive, federal power to be molded." Davids described lavishly.  
Yada remained rather unimpressed by the warped history lesson.  
"So you should see now... I wasted a lot of my time attempting to convince people. What I should've been doing from the start, as a once-stray investor named Nakajima showed me, and what I am surely doing now, is enforce the necessity of my achievements. And the best way to do that, when your accolades are all about helping to preserve life... Is to eradicate a bit of it. Of course, since there are eight billion people living on this world now, a bit can very much be seen along the lines as tens of millions, if not a hundred. But I won't bore you with with all of those such irrelevant numbers." Davids shooed the matter away.  
Taking heavy offense to how easily the one before her hand-waved any amount of human lives, Yada grimaced her face again, attempting to bring her arms and legs before the rest of her body to attack him, but still to no avail.  
"Aw calm down, little miss. After all, you don't get to be mad at me; in fact, it should be the other way around!" Davids violently slapped her. He then held the other side of her face close to his again. "Weren't you just the nicest, most adorable spy there ever was, huh? Bringing my dying double to safety, and holding his hand as he passed? Then you rummaged through his person, which you very much thought was mine, like a dirty, desperate street urchin!" The CEO then began firmly groping the CFO all over her, especially her more sensitive areas, much to her muffled outcries.  
"EHNGH! RRMPH!" She exclaimed while flailing against the invasion.  
"How do you like it huh? Someone feeling you all up?!" He finally stopped and resorted to pitching her chin up at him. "Boys and girls like you think you're so in the right, helping people get what they want rather than what they need. You know, your lover Kato is the worst offender of them all in that regard; his Alliance invents so much decent stuff - even I have to admit. But those applications have almost no soul because his clients keep meddling any possible sources out of it. Not to mention, his clients are also the reason why he's dead; he's had to have heard about this somehow." He declared vehemently.  
Yada squinted her eyes again with aggressive perplexity.  
"You believe he's still alive? Because of the secret message I take it? Nakajima mentioned how you were able to gather this far how Tsuchiya and Kazuhiro could've been his partners in this operation. What if I told you... The latter planted that transmission too?" Davids smugly inquired.  
Realizing that possibility, Yada couldn't help freezing up, dilating her eyes in horror.   
Davids finally let go of her and made for the door. "It's going to be fun, making way for a wiser world knowing that Japan's watchdog has failed, and his backup plan reduced to chained animals in concrete pens. So be sure to enjoy yourself in these coming few days; my HYM Virus may not be fully ready for mass distribution just yet, but it will be very soon. And my deal with Tsuchiya and Kazuhiro, who are visiting for the final progress trip today, will mark the beginning of the end of your precious society." He finished before closing the door. Yada let out one more roar of defiance as the threshold closed.  
Elsewhere (but seemingly not too far from Yada's cell given the echoing sound of the slamming door, Kazuhiro steps out from Naoko's, ice-bagging his right hand as he departs. Naoko herself was bound to a pole in the center, with her wrists crossed and trapped in chains behind the mast. Her ankles were kept apart due to a metal beam, and were also limited by concrete weights chained to the cuffs. The agent, with ragged clothes and darkening cuts, was breathing deeply, indisputably from Kazuhiro's off-screen beatdown.   
Finally, Tsuchiya stepped away from Miho's own room. The former soldier was the most restrained, forced to bend forward due to a thousand-pound weight before her strapped to her upper body. Her feet were incased in metal greaves bolted to the ground, and her arms, tape-bound all the way between her wrists and above her elbows, pointed straight to the ceiling involuntarily because of a ceiling cable. Despite her earlier vindictive demands, here she was now, almost motionless, not helping a blank stare towards nothing, to top it off.  
The Kato Alliance traitors regrouped in the transport depot outside the facility, meeting with Davids and Nakajima, who were similarly preparing to take leave of the site.  
"You know, this wasn't customary." The other KAM CFO-turned-COO muttered.   
"What was?" Davids, hands behind him, inquired curiously.  
"Meeting up in-person before a black market deal." Kazuhiro clarified.  
Nakajima threw his hads out in a shrugging expression. "I just wanted to show you all that we mean business, and we can hold our end."  
"You do that by making the bioweapon we want. How we use it is up to us."  
"Not anymore." Nakajima looked away a bit before proceeding. "How you outsmarted those wenches by knowing exactly how they act is the same way your former Chairman can outsmart you. Deal's changed; for the same price, you get the weapon in all its glory. And as a bonus, our contribution to the assurance that the weapon we tirelessly worked on for you is put into action at least three times in three oh so very important places." He revised the agreement.  
"If that's truly how you want to do it." Satoshi bowed, prompting Kazuhiro to hastily do the same.  
"A new day is upon us, gentlemen." Nakajima saluted comically before getting into an armored bus alongside Davids. The two Yakuza did the same with an APC of their own, and drove off, going their separate ways for now.   
Yep, this looks to be the end. With them all isolated, without their suits and other gear, and no hope of rescue, any ordinary team of girls would be doomed, helpless to stopping the greatest of evils.  
But... This isn't any ordinary team of girls.  
A few minutes later, when she could know for certain that only the surveillance operators would be wary, Yada closed her eyes and concentrated, before she sensed a transmission. _Naoko. Miho. Are you hearing this?_ She... Spoke with thoughts?  
_Yeah, I can hear you. Still can't really believe that Kato really got microcommunications this far down, though. These tiny machines sensing frontal speaking thoughts from just the ear canal is very impressive._ Naoko marveled.  
_Miho, how about you?_ Yada continued.  
But the former soldier's eyes remained shellshocked.  
_Miho, girl? You cool? What did they do to you?_ Naoko expressed concern.  
_Tsuchiya... After all this time, he didn't believe in Kato's cause. He just wanted gratification - a right to punish without being criticized. And he had been holding in the urge to lash out for so long. Waiting for the right opportunity._ Miho finally telepathically responded.  
_Miho..._ Yada too sounded out her sympathies.  
_And then he blamed... Yada, for softening his former boss up. For discouraging him from taking on more destructive tendencies._ Miho's tone throughout that sentence became more and more sharp with each passing word.  
_Huh. Funny. Kazuhiro seems to blame you too, Y, for his lack of recognition and respect in the Alliance. So he took a bit of his frustrations out on me. What a sore loser, if you ask me._ Naoko added on.  
Now Yada couldn't help but stare a thousand yards ahead, lost in thought over that one-two combo.  
_You know what? Bringing down Kato, betraying him, is already a sin worthy of placement in a Circle in Hell. But indicting his close colleagues as instigators for that turn of character? Now they've really crossed the line._ Miho tensed up. _Yada, Naoko, let's get out of here and show them who they should be really worried about!_ She ordered.  
_Yes, ma'am!_ They both affirmed.  
Yada opened her maw, allowing her tongue to feel below her lower teeth and produce a plastic blade, resembling a guitar pick in some capacity. Pushing it through her lips allowed it to pierce the layers of tape and expose it to the outside. The CFO then tested how far she could actually bring her head down before her air was cut short by the collar. When she found said apex, she then whipped it back, throwing the blade over herself, and landing in her open right palm. One rotating compression later, ad the tape over her fingers were slit (albeit causing some lacerations that were actively bleeding as well). This freed the appendages to then file her wrist bindings and connecting cables to her leash and tied ankles. With her legs now dangling free, she hoisted them up above the rest of her so that she could wrap them over the rope connected to the ceiling. With herself now hanging upside down, Yada then bent her knees, compressing the string and easing tension on the ropes. This permitted the CFO to briefly bring her arms closer than the ropes were tied for, allowing the loops to slide out from the original position and down to her wrists, which could be easily cut loose. She caught the remaining ceiling cable as he flipped right-side up and swung onto her feet, completing the motions with ripping the tape off of her mouth and prying the collar loose. _I'm free._ She thought to the micromachines.  
Naoko whipped her right leg in such a way that the round concrete weight wound up on top of the bar restraining her ankles. She then used her hands and pulled all of her body up the pole for almost a meter and then dropped back down, using gravity to make the sphere crush the bar. Naoko stomped on both cuffs to free herself from the balls, and then backflipped to be upside-down on the pole. Her mouth produced the same polymer shiv that Yada had, which she then put into her hand to jam the chains on her wrists and provide a leverage point to break them. She finally somersaulted into three-point stance on the ground. _Free too._ She remarked, also pulling the duct off.  
Miho needed not use such fancy tactics to get out, for while the Kingslayers thought well about the bindings that could possibly keep her down indefinitely, they didn't think enough of the stuff it was shackling her too. Miho forcibly lifted both of her feet up, ripping the greaves out from the floor and taking some of the concrete stuck to the bolts with it. This also gave her free rein to spin and apply too much tension on the ceiling cable for her arms, separating the winch at the top. The former soldier then used her nails and insane finger strength to shred the tape on her hands before working her way up the limbs, and finally finding it sufficient to just push her arms apart and back to their original position. The greaves came off promptly after prying the openings loose, leaving just the 1,000-lb. weight and harness, which Miho had no trouble unfastening.  
Of course, CCTV in each of their rooms noted their freeing of themselves, and called for security to re-apprehend them. Yada, Naoko, and Miho were treated to three-to-four Kingslayer henchmen coming in through the only doorway. When one was ready to report the incident further, Yada threw her shiv straight at his hand, lodging the weapon into his hand.   
One guard shook away his initial shock and went for his baton, like the other unhindered. "You'll pay for that!" He threatened.  
_Just try..._ Yada thought back.  
Needless to say, a combat scenario was unavoidably impending.  
  
=Judgment's OST "Darkness" plays.=  
  


# 矢田 桃花、秋本 直子、秋山美穂VSキングスレイヤーズ

## Touka Yada; Kato Arms Manufacturing CFO,

### "We're going to finish what Kato started!"

## Naoko Akimoto; Japanese Ministry of Defense Field Agent,

### "'Kingslayers?' More like street ramblers."

## and Miho Akiyama; Kato Alliance Vice Captain

### "There shall be a fire and brimstone Hell to pay!"

## VS

## The Kingslayers

  
Both one henchman and Yada charged towards each other, with the latter ducking underneath a loaded right straight to contend with his colleague behind him, though not before punting at his shin to make him trip and fall on his face. She then pulled on the second's cross and lifted up a knee, driving it straight into his exposed ribcage. She then seized his flashlight from his right side and jabbing his hip with the pommel, quickly smacking the stressed area with a backhand, disabling him. Yada then semi-Keysi blocked a left haymaker and shined a bright light-beam straight into his face, temporarily blinding him and left defenseless to a left forehand swing that smashed the bulb-end clear on the chin, knocking him out. Yada then spun-tossed the torch right into the rising first's shin, again tripping him up. This time he won't get a chance to get up, however, as the CFO came right through with a punt to his temple. She then scoured his person, discovering another torch and an access card, and then set off.  
Naoko meanwhile Dempsey-Rolled underneath her first attacker's wild swing, and then rose up with a vicious push into his cohorts, knocking down the second and forcing the third to back away startlingly. Having smuggled a climbing knife, she uses the lever-latch as she pivots around the first to hook it involuntarily to his tactical belt, forcing him to go back to back with her (and her diminutive size in comparison made it next to impossible to attack). Naoko then confronted the third briefly, hook kicking one cross punch away from herself before then taking her free hand onto his shirt and pulling him towards the second, making them both stumble again. Naoko then whipped the one behind her towards them, creating a line of heads for her to snipe in quick succession, using a 540 spinning heel kick. She claimed another knife, as well as two of their phones before leaving through the door they came in from.  
Miho headbutted the first on-comer, who was smart enough to brandish a torch against the larger lady - his only disadvantage was his lack of speed in delivering an overhead with it. He crumples to the floor in no time flat, bewildering the other two, who nonetheless find it in them to continue engaging her to the conflict. They both flank the former JGSDF and try for double diagonal swipes with their own flashlights, only for Miho to catch them both simultaneously and spinning, causing them both to leave the ground. When the Captain stops, both of them have been reduced to kneeling stances, from which the former had no time switching front and back kicks directed at their faces. She used a stance switch to seize both of their makeshift weapons and hammered them both down on their crowns, finally taking them out. Miho seized a radio from one before departing.  
It turns out that Miho was the first to get into the corridors, followed by Yada and Naoko. "You girls alright?" She instinctively questioned. "Ah- Naoko, your face and torso..." She then noticed her bruises and cuts.  
"I'm alright. I can still fight." Naoko nodded.  
"We best hurry; no doubt the garrison is coming this way." Yada urgently reported.  
"Wait, let me deal with this thing..." The Alliance Captain advised, before taking a knee and disassembling the radio she stole.  
The back right pocket of Naoko's shorts rumbled; it was one of the phones. "Shoot, Miho, we do need to go. They're calling about their friends now."  
"Fine, I'll do it on the way." The older woman rose up, noticing the device in Naoko's hand. "Don't mind if I take this to deal with this, do you?" She snatched it a second after asking.  
"Hey!" She sighed. "Okay, let's just get our bearings and get out." The agent handwaved the matter. The trio then proceeded down the corridor. Meanwhile, Naoko rapidly tapped on the screen of the other phone she stole.  
"Now's not really the time to be surfing, N." The CFO gave an aside glance while pushing forward.  
"I'm running the hyperlink Kato gave to me. It's going to map out the area in the same way we did with Hayashida's fight club. I asked for it to help with some of my own ops. Should help us find out how to get out!" The asset bounced back.  
"Huh. Smart." Miho grinned, as she continued to work with her own devices.  
"Is it operational?" Yada looked on the screen while inquiring.  
"Right about now. We're headed towards this floor's locker rooms." Naoko's ming then flickered. "It's not an exit, but we could make do with their supp-" She was interrupted.  
"Just the knives, batons, and scopes. Don't take any guns." Miho asserted. "Got it." She rejoiced, now discarding the phone, and reassembling the rest of the jury-rigged radio.  
"What? Why?" She again looked perplexed.  
"Naoko, just do as she says. It's going to be okay." Yada assured her.  
"Very well." The small brunette acknowledged.  
The girl trio advanced on the area, and just before the entrance, one Kingslayer henchman was stepping out from the door. By chance he decided to look over the door he has opened to find them supremely close. He instinctively goes for the Troy rifle in his hands, but Naoko was faster, front-kicking the door straight into him, and trapping him between the threshold. His head unfortunately remained exposed; vulnerable to a superkick that sandwiched it into the ceramic wall, knocking him out. Miho took to the rifle for a moment (earning ironic ire from Naoko), to scope out the area before tossing it aside when there weren't any other stragglers.  
They wasted no time scouring the lockers after busting them open with the butts of other assault rifles, fancying themselves some of their melee instruments, as well as a subnotebook (micro-laptop that fits in just two open hands), multi-faculty optical lenses and binoculars.  
Yada broke through another locker and opened it up, hoping to claim her own Recon 1 tactical knife. But instead...  
"Whoa guys, check this out." She pulled out a large ammunition box and found their KAM AtTac equipment. "It's our armors!" She presented her glove as proof of the discovery, before proceeding to put it on.  
"It must be Tsuchiya's locker. Hm, keeping our stuff. No chance he's a perv too?" Naoko asked, before claiming the Mk. III servos.  
"Nah, he never found any romantic ties in my two decades knowing him. But I suppose I never really did know him." Miho described.  
Yada tried to manifest the nanobots from her glove, but nothing happened. "Damn, the microwave pulse has really crippled our equipment. Looks like we're still going to be using their vests." Yada turned to another locker's hangers, putting one on, and tossing two others to her colleagues.  
With them all geared up, they continued their escape. According to Naoko's mapping phone, the vehicle depot was two floors down and in the Western end of the building. Yada and Naoko led the charge down one corridor, with Naoko sliding underneath one unsuspecting soldier's legs and raising up her knees so that he fell onto them chest-first when Yada flying side-kicked him in the back. The latter then pulled out the magazine from the fallen Troy assault rifle, pried out a bullet and took to the close wall, crouching down, anticipating the nearby door to open after the commotion. It did, and when he scoped over to the source, he did not see the CFO lob the rest of the STANAG into his face, stunning him long enough for Yada, hollow-point between her fingers, to roll in with a piercing punch to the thigh that traveled up to the chest from which she snapmare driver'ed the man's head to the ground to knock him out.  
Two backup guards came in with guns trained on the ladies from the other side of the hallway. They did not find Miho, however, for she was waiting behind in the ensuing chaos the whole time for this moment, and subdued them with simultaneous chop blocks that dislocated their knees from the backside. Penalty kicks from the other two to their heads sealed their deals.  
The trio then happened upon the first staircase to descend upon, but heard voices and footsteps going up. Naoko nodded to the other two (who copied), and when the sounds became extremely close, she exploded out from the open threshold and leaped over the railing to quickly drop down to the next level. The three mobile sentries were alarmed and looked towards her destination, rendering them unaware to the other ladies' advance. Yada disabled her opponent with a bicycle knee to the temple, followed by a rifle-assisted stunner that forced him to jump and fall down the stairs. Miho dashed in with a violent shoulder tackle that even made the enemy make a small imprint on the ceramics behind him. Naoko gestured to them with a comical sense of "rushing-ness" and so they proceeded.  
Just a corner past the exit point, three guards, two baton wielders and a pistol-man, were between them and their progress. Yada and Naoko both avoided the initial swiping attempts and kept their opponent's arms overswung, stunning them with kidney punches, and then pushed them back, making it impossible for the gunman to get a good shot on either. When she was close enough, Naoko then gave a Scorpion kick to her victim and then flipped back into a dropkick, that sent him tumbling into the third. Miho sprinted in, wall-running over Naoko to deliver an elbow drop to both of their torsos, taking out any wind within them. Meanwhile, Yada pivoted behind her enemy while keeping the arm coiled, transitioning into a ripcord rolling wheel kick, devastatingly smashing her heel into his nose.  
The three girls advanced before being forced to go into a large corridor, of which there was a firing line of rifles and SMGs in their way that opened fire. Yada's forearm got a small graze, and when Naoko took to the former to ensure they could get behind cover, her vest takes two AP rounds, giving her a quick sting.   
"No guns, huh?" Naoko asked, before smacking her back to make the depressed cartridges fall off.  
"Because of this - watch." Miho took out the radio from earlier and pressed on one enlarged key. She then unequipped her vest.  
"Miho?" The agent raised an eyebrow.  
Miho then tossed it to the center of the T-passage for the group to instinctively open fire upon. But despite the audible clicks of the trigger, no cartridges were released. She and Yada gave a big grin upon this observation and then bursted from behind cover. They both picked up some empty shells and whipped them at the closer opponents, distracting them from diving clotheslines. The second and third waves advanced, but they don't get close enough thanks to Naoko's own charge, tossing the heavy armor left earlier into the closest and then spinning heel kicks two others. Yada rolled to the final line of reinforcements, slicing at their heels with a dagger to force a set of three-points and then taking them all out with a low-angle spinning heel kick that clapped all of their cheeks. Miho and Naoko were left to deal with the stragglers up front, with a variety of backbreakers, body-slams, and weapon-smacking respectively.   
"What was that, for the hundredth time?" Naoko tossed aside an SMG she used as a blunt object she used to whack a baddie over the head.  
"It's the Kingslayers being smug, thinking they can kill their biggest enemies with their own shit." Miho cryptically described.  
The MoD agent was left dumbfounded.  
"Miho means that the Kingslayers have been buying out pirated small arms that have been developed and, more importantly, encrypted by KAM. This is why privately-owned guns developed by us are not allowed to fire if their specific database does not recognize your EM neurosignals. The Kingslayers believe this is a smart way to turn the tables against us, but they don't realize that there is a conduit to instructing their guns to prime up from their thoughts - a communicative encryption. Of the same type I used to find out the Nice coordinates." Yada explained.  
"And while technically any extremely-skilled cracker can work around this, the numbers will only look like added serial and tag IDs. And past that, all failed attempts will set the firearm's combustive elements to 300% overcharge and ruin it." Miho finished.  
Naoko shook her head and exhaled. "Doesn't KAM think of everything...?"  
"Enough talk; let's wrap this up." Miho took another baton from some of the fallen and goaded the rest into pushing forward.  
  
=OST pauses.=  
  
The three ladies make it safely outside the concrete facility, finding themselves an unknown distance from the underground of the Davids estate, seeing as how no towns belonging to the Amalfi Coast were in view.   
"Where the Hell are we?" Naoko questioned, continuing to scope out the area.  
"Definitely still in Italy. These hills look familiar." Miho whipped open the baton from earlier.  
"We should find out as we continue to escape. Miho, you think we can take any of these vehicles?" Yada pointed towards some paramilitary trucks.  
"Hold on a second." Miho pulled out one of the radios she acquired and pressed a few buttons. Immediately, one of the trucks' mechanisms detonated, collapsing the chosen vehicle.  
"What the Hell was that?!" Naoko's nerves quickly engaged.  
"Shit. They have tampered with the tracker module on the cars to also disable utility. Permanently too, as that display showed. If we drive out with any of them and they find out which one, and they would, it'd be a long walk back." Miho put away the device.  
"So now what...? Come on Yada, think..." Yada clutched the side of her head.  
"YOU! STOP!"   
The stray voice alerted the trio of ladies, who made a triangle back-to-back, pointing their weapons all around, and finding that the brute wasn't alone, with roughly a dozen others, armed to the teeth with assault rifles and SMGs that were similarly trained on them.  
"Nice try, women. I must say, we're all impressed. We could use eighty of you to amazing effect. Shame that you won't be a part of it."  
"Yeah? Wouldn't want to be anyways!" The MoD asset yelled back.  
"Surrender now, and you won't die where you stand!"  
"Rather on our feet than on our knees." The Alliance Captain similarly retorted.  
"Very well. Men..." The supposed leader held out his hand, readying the order.  
_Now would be a good time to use that trick from earlier, Miho..._ Naoko reminded.  
_Alright, but get ready for another brawl._ Miho then went for her radio yet again.  
_Wait... What's that noise?_ Yada floated her eyes cautiously around herself again, hearing some sort of treading on rugged dirt roads.  
The Kingslayers seemed to notice it as well, picking all of their heads up and away from their rail and iron sights.   
Miho found this as her chance, pressing the button on her radio again, which locked up all of the nearby firearms.  
"What the-!?" One guard spoke their collective thoughts.  
There was then an RPG rocket that blasted through one of the walls to the car depot, with the shockwaves incapacitating half of the Kingslayers. the three girls capitalized on the secondary shock value, taking down the other half, and then stood vigilant as a large APC came in through the forced opening, with a military color scheme that contrasted the facility's matte black coloring.  
The backdoors opened up and formed a ramp, allowing the passenger back there to descend, carrying the RPG that caused the mayhem. He fired it again, this time at the garage doors to block the exit further.  
The trio looked at the damage he caused for a bit before back at him.  
He finally revealed himself with the hood and mask he was wearing seemingly disintegrate, exposing his face. "Well well well..." He checked his watch rather ironically. "Kept you waiting, huh?" Kazuhiko Kato quipped.  
All three expressed a fair bit of relief as they realized who has intruded. "Kato/Chairman-ani!" They identified.  
"Chairman!" Nylen was revealed to be in the back, holding her laptop in her hands. "We got incoming! One large convoy after all of us now!"  
"We need to get a move on. Inside the transport, ladies!" Kato discarded his heavy weapon.  
"Right!" The trio nodded, mobilizing into the trunk of the transport.  
"Great to see all of you again." Nylen held her mouth in awe.  
"That makes two of us." Bellamy used a back camera to speak to them.  
"Five of us, more like." Yada smiled.  
Kato was the last one in, after putting down two with his Kimber in a side-shield shooting position, retracting the platform and blast-doors. "Bellamy we're good! Punch it!" He demanded.  
Immediately, the SAS officer slammed the gas, urging the transport to drive out.  
"There they are..." Naoko noticed through the armored window slits on the side of the vehicle, seeing the roughly fifteen assorted vehicles, be them trucks, APCs, and jeeps. They too seemed to discover them, as they all diverted to give chase.  
"We're not out of their woods just yet." Nylen, utilizing the local radar on the APC, reminded them of the approaching danger.  
"Not going to outrun them." Kato pounded the chassis with frustration. "Yada, Naoko, Miho, are your armors still disabled?" He asked them.  
"Afraid so. Tsuchiya must've really taught Kaneshiro everything about our tech to this point." Yada responded.  
"Okay. So I'll take point. Nylen, get the Jumper ready in case I need it." Kato ordered, taking to one section of the trunk.  
"'Jumper?'" Naoko looked puzzled. Very much her trademark now.  
"It'll be set when you are." The Swede continued to type on her terminal vigorously.  
"Very good. Miho, take to the top-mounted guns. Naoko and Miho, help Nylen coordinate employment of the anti-chase traps." Kato then swung through the wall, which was revealed to be a magnetically-sealed trapdoor that quickly transitioned him to right outside the transport (which nonetheless surprised Yada and Naoko, who then took to the windows and saw him climbing up to the roof. When he did arrive at the top and pulled out his Mk47 Mutant battle rifle, Kato was fully clad in his own KAM AtTac Suit, without requiring any external activations like Yada's or Naoko's necessitated. He immediately pressed down on one section of the roof, producing a raised ballistic wall, and then took aim at the closest vehicles, which began sprouting their own attackers. Miho had gotten into the passenger seat and summoned an on-board operational interface to manipulate the turret. Nylen meanwhile had coordinated the younger ladies to props positioned around the trunk, readying for the counteroffensive.  
  
=OST resumes; Ryu Ga Gotoku 5's OST ["Pursuit of Speed"](https://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7qlRW3hGTE) plays.=  
  


# 加藤アライアンスアンドアリーズVSザキングスレイヤーズ

## The Kato Alliance and Allies

## VS

## The Kingslayers

  
Kato took quick aim at his first target, believed to be the passenger of a motorcycle team that was aiming down with a Stinger. But instead, Kato shoots at the much smaller handlebar of the vehicle, forcibly causing it to turn a hard right, ramming right into the truck next to it. He then shoots down two reinforcements on another truck who were climbing up to prime a mounted Barrett MG, before being forced to take cover from suppressing fire. As he reloaded, he quickly looked through his ballistic wall with X-rays, locating the closest truck to his right. He pulled out an adhesive explosive and lobbed it over his cover, with it landing straight onto its hood. The projectile turns out to be a modified EMP, and its detonation caused it, and two other two-wheelers to disable immediately.   
Kato then sees an ATV gaining on the left side, past his shooting point. Urgently, he takes to his comms system. "Kat, you seeing the guy on the right of the APC?" He informed.  
"On top of him." Kat then turned to Yada. "Ma'am, flick that red switch there!" She ordered.  
"You got it!" She affirmed, complying to the action. What resulted is the most external layer of the transport's chassis violently springing out, pushing against the ATV and forcing them to tip over. As quick as it came out, the hull went right back to where it needed to.  
Kato again looks up to take aim, only to get suppressive fire come his way. He also sees two RPGs coming from his left on separate vehicles, which would certainly tip their transport over if they make a direct hit to the wheels. "Miho, concentrate main gun fire on the starboard side!"  
"Yessir!" The Captain switched to the right-side turrets, which peeked out of the upper corner, and unleashed a huge volley of anti-material Shock-Out rounds, which fried the aforementioned trucks. One of the launcher-users took the abrupt stop in motion hard and flipped out of the trunk in front of it. "Got them!"  
"Nice shot!" Kato put the rifle back on his Vacuum Carry and then pulled out two of his Kimber Mk. IIIs. His eyes reopened with dilation, and he sprouted from the side of his cover. Within just three-quarters of a second, Kato made out twelve individuals. He then used the next five seconds to snipe them all down with Shock-Out rounds of his own.   
One driver, realizing that many of his colleagues above and behind him have been taken out, decides to keep chase and even try ramming the transport off-course.   
When the Chairman realizes this, he holsters most of his weapons yet again. "Kat, release the Jumper on my mark!"  
"It's all set; awaiting your order!" The Swede confirmed.  
Kato then barrel-rolled back a fair distance before spring up and clearing the barricade, dropkicking right through the windshield of the pressing truck and smashing into the driver's chest, taking out all of his wind. Kato then transitioned to the passenger area, elbowing all of the standbys in the face as he shot at the auto-lock on the back door. Jumping onto this one too, the left hinge swung open and from the same side came a heavily-modified KTM 450 motorcycle, autopiloted seemingly by Kat. He swiftly hopped into the driver's seat and finished his disabling of the truck with another microwave pulse grenade thrown right back into the service area.   
Kato swiftly deals with another cyclist by driving to his side and kicking the shock absorbers out of place, bending the machine out of position and forcing a bail on its two operators. As Kato laid down more suppressive fire, vehicles started converging on him in the hopes of taking him out. But this was just what he wanted, from which he then sped up and took to the left side, making them follow suit.  
"Naoko, push that red button and leave your hand close to that yellow switch." Kat prepared.  
"You got it!" The MoD asset complied. The button caused a scatter of mines to spread out from behind the APC, and all enemy cars unfortunate enough to run over them were promptly sent into the air and tipped over.  
"Now the switch!" The logistical unit ordered again.  
With that, came a concussive blast directed towards the ground at its side. The focused shockwave caused a large impression on the soil, enough that it trapped all front wheels of vehicles behind it, stopping them dead in their tracks.   
Kato slowed down, allowing one truck to try and ram him down. That is when he showcased another trick, and why exactly he's been calling the two-wheeler a Jumper. Underneath the shifter was a sort of push-lever, much like a kickstand or igniter, that Kato kicked down, which fired a more localized concussive blast, blasting the vehicle into the air and clearing the sheer height of the truck. He lands in their trunk, SMG-whipping one to his right with a FightLite RaiderII and then firing it at two others to his left. He was also treated to seeing Miho gun down another advancing truck towards the one he was on.  
"Gah, what the Hell am I doing!? I need to be out there helping him out personally!" Miho slammed the targeting computer back up and got to the back. "Bellamy, I'm borrowing your AtTac Suit!"  
"Uh, not that I will refuse, but will that work?" The Brit questioned without taking his eye off the path.  
"It's good, I just need 70% coverage at the most." The woman acknowledged, putting on his wristbands, scarf, and anklets, and guiding the nanobot flow to accommodate her form. She then raided the locker for an HK443 and then got out the same way Kato did.  
Kato forced a hop to the side of the truck he just jumped into, and shot at the wheels to force a veer off-course. He then noticed an ally climbing to the top of the APC, realizing it soon to be Miho in a backup Suit. Knowing better than to refuse her aid, he nods to her, prompting her to jump and fire a grapple cable from her upper forearm, which Kato catches the end of. She somersaults over the vehicle to skate behind it, making a difficult target as she also shoots down fellow reinforcements. Kato also thinks to swing her towards one four-wheeler, which she answers by dropkicking with enough force to tip it over. The rebound allows her to get to the passenger seat of the dirtbike; a pat on her Chairman's shoulder signals her want to drive, which Kato concedes, hopping over her to switch spots.   
Meanwhile, Naoko senses foreign vibrations on the APC. "What's that sound?" She asked aloud.  
Yada prompted Nylen, seeking a pair of multi-faculty specs. Putting them on, she finds an enemy hitchhiker, who has perhaps flanked the APC behind one the team has disabled earlier to reach. "Someone's climbing to the driver's area!" She informed.  
Naoko took a KRISS Kard and went to the same alcove that Kato and Miho got out of.  
"What are you doing?" Kat inquired.  
"Sniping that idiot! Yada, keep the rest of me in this vehicle!" The Special Ops agent requested. Yada held down her ankles as she peeked past the chassis, and shot a Shock-Out straight into the man's bum. He takes a hard tumble to the rough ground as a result, needless to say.  
Kato then side-flipped to one truck's chassis, EM-Traversing to stay there. One cyclist unfortunate enough to try and flank either of them gets tripped up by the Wire Wrest they form between each other, and when Miho directed the bike away from the truck, Kato was able to pull the latter with him, causing it to edge out two at its corner. They anticipate the final two trucks attempt to sandwich the cycle, so Miho fires another concussive blast to leap above them both (Kato ran up the side to similarly avoid becoming a pancake). By this point, an attack helicopter has joined the fray, and to prevent it from getting a clean shot on the APC, Kato and Miho both nod. They then use a volley of Shock-Out rounds to disable the trucks, creating inertia for themselves. The second they feel the impact, Miho kicks the KTM into max gear, and then Kato jumps high, creating an inverse pendulum. Kato then lets go of the wire wrest and latches onto middle of the heli's tail as it arrives. He drives his troodon knife, infused with high-frequency tech, into the bridge to the rest of the craft, and then pulls down, dislocating the tail and causing the vehicle to go haywire. Kato stays with it in spin cycle twice before jumping off, knowing he was going the same way his allies were. Miho saw him in the air, narrowly avoiding a spray helicopter blade, and fires her grapple line at him, knowing he will catch it and begin skating on the ground himself. She then retracts the cable, allowing him back onto the backseat. Without any more Kingslayer garrisons approaching, the team looked to be in the clear, and persisted in driving away.  
  
=OST ends.=  
  
With the coast now clear, both APC and motorcycle continue their way for at least another fifteen miles before stopping at a cliffside overlooking the sun setting on the watery horizon.  
"Best fun you've had in," Kato checked his watch. "...Years, huh Miho? Sure beats busting your average gun trafficking op." He assured her with a shoulder blade tap while hopping off the backseat of the motorcycle.  
"Almost makes me wish I didn't duck out on Keitaro again after his thirty-fifth straight victory. Almost." Miho's AtTac Suit mask retracted, showing her smiling back to her Chairman.  
"That just means he's going to love to hear about yet another story coming home with you." The Chairman affirmed. They both then gave a little fit of laughter and hugged securely. "Miho, if I scared you badly yet again, I-" He was beginning to apologize.  
"Don't. It's okay. It wouldn't if you were actually dead, but you always find a way to kick back, using everything you learned from yourself, your uncle, and a bit of me... I guess I should just be proud and loving then." Miho reiterated, tightening her grip a little bit.  
When the two finally released, allies started spilling out of the APC too. The second was Yada, who looked around a bit before locating Kato, who was equally surprised to see her now that the heat of the moment has passed and action was no longer on everyone's minds. "Yada-san..." The latter identified slowly, while stepping towards her.  
"Kato." She mimicked. They stopped within just a foot, gazing into each other's eyes as if they were having a distant family reunion. And though they haven't been this intimate in a long while, both of them could tell what the other wanted to say at that every moment.  
Abruptly, Kato brushed his lower eyelids and broke stare. "Yada..." He parroted, albeit with a different, more trembling tone.  
"Kato, I understand. Now's not the time to be freaking out on you. You're feeling an intense loss already." Yada laid her hand on his clavicle.  
Kato then returned gawking at her.  
"So, how about I vent just a bit with a slap to the face, and we'll pick up on this later?" The CFO bargained. After he nodded, she used her other hand to redden his chin, and then immediately went to giving him a shoulder to rest on. "We're going to get through this, Kato. We're with you every step of the way." She assured him.  
"I'm glad you came. All of you." Kato's voice finally calmed down.  
"Hell yeah, we came! You're an AssClass member, remember? We stick together." Naoko pounded her fist.  
"And as your blood-brothers and sisters, at least, the devoted ones, we're here too." Bellamy bowed.  
"That reminds me; Tsuchiya and your cousin has broken a lot of hearts; theirs' are going to be skewered." Miho held her hip.  
"Before we go through with that, we best find a safer place to speak of these matters before proceeding anywhere else." Kato requested.  
And so they got back on their vehicles and took off, heading towards Naples.


	7. Reunited Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazuhiko Kato and Touka Yada. Reunited. After a lot of time apart.
> 
> Drama (hysterics) ensue.
> 
> Plus some interactions with the rest and the fallout of the teams encounters with the Kingslayers and Saviors.

Upon reaching the outskirts of Naples, the team dumped their vehicles to eliminate any traces of their movements from the Kingslayers or any other trailing factions. From the underground garage nearby it, they made their way on Yamaha Kodiak ATVs to the center of the city. Kato and Bellamy finally pointed out the Hotel Romeo as a safepoint, and checked in there to regain their bearings.  
"You three, please stand still while I purge any of the virus from your systems." Kato instructed, as he aimed blowhorn-like instrument that flashed a bright strobe across their form. They all winced slightly, but hardly protested, knowing he knew what he was doing.  
Everybody had a quick opportunity to get cleaned up and refreshed before they get up to speed with each other.  
"Kato... So you lived up to the fake message Tsuchiya made up." Naoko observed. "Honestly, not too surprised. Explosion would be much too clean a death for you." She added on.  
"Heh, I don't imagine you would fall so easily either, so I make sure I don't succumb to the same." Kato smirked. She copied (perhaps out of agreement) and then they both bumped fists.  
"But how did you survive, Chairman?" Kat leaned forward towards him.  
"Ah! Haha. Those were some fun," Kato checks his watch before continuing. "... Six minutes. Allow me to literally illustrate them to you."  
"Oh here we go..." Naoko sighed with closed eyes."  
_Back during my time raiding the private research room, I had discovered that Davids and Nakajima had already cleared out the databases and removed all of the samples from the area in anticipation of myself. For that matter, they had set up the room to explode in a fiery climax.  
"Torch this clown." The seeming captain of the security detail ordered, watching as one subordinate came towards the deposit box to mail a lit match into the center, which was already filled with a significantly-flammable gas.  
But nobody seemed to realize that Kato had the means and strength to break down the highly-protective glass between them, using a single Kimber ballistic and then stressing the crack further with a lunge of his Ballistic Shield. The supposedly bulletproof surface shatters, exposing both rooms to the elements.  
"OhmyGod- Put that out!" The Captain revised; his colleague immediately dropped the match and stomped on it. "Plan B then, boys; light 'im up!" He finished switching strategies.  
All of them raised their Malyuk rifles, aimed and opened fire on their infiltrator.  
"What th-?!" A stray voice exclaimed.  
But despite the audible clicks of the triggers on their firearms, no combustive elements were activated and so no ballistics left their barrels.  
"Always good to obtain that nifty little Cog. No. from your signal tower," Kato checked his InReTs screen for the time before continuing in English. "Roughly sixteen minutes ago. Altering just one of those digits doesn't let you fire those guns anymore." He revealed, while putting away his Kimber. "And that means, I won't be needing this." He taunted, cracking both sets of knuckles.   
On any other day, in any other situation, the burly pack of six would've probably accepted the fisticuffs challenge with glee. But this time, they know that most of their other colleagues have fallen, with one of their strongest having been subjugated clearly by similar means. And so they actually retreat just a bit in preparation.  
Minutes later, all but one of them were flat on the ground, either sleeping on the cement or eating it. The last one hardly fared better, with a dislocated kneecap and broken other tibia. He was crawling away from the scene as Kato politely pulled the rest out of the private facility. The latter did eventually return his attention to the final conscious member, taking him by the hair and bringing his face close to his. "Your boss knew I would be here. Did he tell you where HE would be?" The Chairman asked.  
"Like I could tell you where the CEO is!" He stammered back.  
"Of course you can tell me. Nothing's stopping you, not even another fracture." The Japanese man threatened.  
"Nice. He said he was going on vacation after some recent success with another company deal." The sentry capitulated.  
"Is whatever I was looking back there with him?" Kato inquired about something else.  
"Sir, I really cannot say-" The man was interrupted.  
"Stop saying that. You don't want to, not that you cannot. You don't think I don't know that Davids only puts people he trusts on his most top-secret projects?" Kato repeated himself.  
"The more remote facilities are in Italy. Amalfi, Florence, Catanzaro. I don't know where the files are now, but they would be in any of those places." He conceded.  
"Honestly?"  
"Yes. Yes!"  
"Very well. Your compliance has spared your life and theirs. But once this situation calms down, you will be thought of as traitors." Kato then clutched the impression of his dog tag necklace from behind his armor. "Best tell your friends to make themselves scarce.   
He nodded in agreement.  
Kato copied, rose up, and returned to the private research rooms. The Chairman then forced the fiery scenario to happen anyways by throwing a Shock-Pad to a nearby outlet, causing sparks to fly and ignite the spreading flammable gas and creating the inferno.   
_"...And from there, I escaped through the waste purification tunnel and reached the end of the system, at which point I moved on ahead to Italy to see if I couldn't redeem myself for my failure and retrieve some substantial info on the bioweapon. I purposefully didn't tell anybody about this though, because it is as Kat had told me; someone from within the Alliance ratted me out. So I rooted them out first and found it to be Tsuchiya when he fabricated the revealing Morse message. So I bugged the distribution and added a subliminal message of my own within it to get any still loyal and attentive on track." Kato hesitated for a moment. "I also... Knew that you were walking into a trap back in Amalfi. But when you split off with Kat and Bellamy, I knew Tsuchiya was going to kill them rather than subdue them like he would with you three. So I went for them, but Satoshi was able to escape, sabotaging our comms in the process. I'm sorry for that, Yada, Naoko, and Miho." He apologized again.  
"You were looking after your bro and sis. No harm done." Naoko understood.  
"Hmm."  
"So if you came to Campania before we did, that should also mean you raided the other biolaboratories here, yeah?"  
"Indeed. In the one within Catanzaro, which I sacked," Kato again checked his watch. "...Twenty-six hours ago, I was able to discover the drive that held all of the research of the bioweapon." Kato manifested his AtTac Suit's vambrace onto his left arm, and played on the InReTs screen to produce his findings on the hotel TV screen. "So, what is it that these... Kingslayers, as you all identify, are making, or made, for that matter, is a virus that can only be activated through radio waves."  
"Um, Kato, we got that already."  
"What? How?"  
"We called Alvarez? He told as much to us?"  
"Oh. Hahah, that's very sensible. Well, there's more. The intended effects of this virus is that within the first twenty-five minutes of exposure, the victim is subject to a very cruel attack on their nerve cells, spreading all across the system until it reaches the brain and sends rogue signals to the aforementioned neurons. Rogue signals that bring about intense, crippling pain as a result of reliving the worst memories of one's lives."  
"So, it breaks you down with shame and regret?"  
"Weaponized shame and regret, on many steroids and armed to the teeth with a minigun. As the bioweapon understands how you tick more and more, the pain of loss becomes more significant. After thirty minutes, you will find intense difficulty moving. Forty minutes, and your sense will be divided between past and present, rendering them almost useless. An hour, and you lose all clean, rational thought. Ninety minutes, you freeze up due to your fears of what could've been. And finally, two and a half hours since activation, regret literally forces your body into spasming to death." Kato relayed the details as he showed edited clips of patients, most likely U.S. prison inmates given the assorted tattoos and gruff visage, as they ran through the gamut of symptoms.  
Yada held her mouth in apprehension. "How awful..."  
"Yeah. That's why the Kingslayers are seeming to call it the HYM Virus. For those who know their Witcher lore, a Hym was a parasite monster that only took energy from those who induce nightmares in their hosts, feeding off of their incessant suffering. It's apt, considering the effects of the Virus only gets stronger the longer it stays attached to us. Unlike the myth, however, there's," Kato checked his watch. "...At this time 7:44 P.M. yet to be a method to cure someone of the affliction once it has taken root." Kato revealed.  
"'Once it has taken root?' So you've been working on a vaccine instead?" Kat figured.  
"Yes. I have found that using quick strobes of red-prism light will condensate the mixed gas into a liquid, rendering it harmless. That's what I did for you three. However, this isn't really enough as there's no reliability on a plan involving us constantly being in the same place, dematerializing all traces of the HYM Virus en route to taking down the Kingslayers. So I have been working on another method entirely."  
"Which is?" Miho, arms crossed and leaning on a nearby wall, questioned.  
"I have looked into the research on the catalyst, and decided to target the frequency instead. I believe if we can create an antiresonance field, it would be much more applicable as a vaccine for a great population, as that just requires us to run it through one cell tower, and all will distribute the wave that will ruin the specific radio frequency required to activate the gas." Kato switched screens to reveal his revised plan.  
"Just like that, huh? It's easier said than done to reconfigure a cell tower in such a time-sensitive scenario."   
"You're absolutely right. Which is why my hyper-prepared self had this matter resolved," The Chairman checked his watch yet again. "... Two years ago, when I contracted Tachyon Industries to finalize the design and construction of an advanced antiresonance chip, that could replicate the one-dimensional nullification in noise-cancelling headphones and channel it across the entire body. I originally had this planned to sabotage a chain reaction of remote-detonation explosives back in Kathmandu, but with Alvarez's help, we ultimately didn't need it, so it's been left in their archives. We'll be calling in on their commission now."  
"Whoa whoa, hang back a second. Tachyon Industries?" Naoko asked.  
Nylen seized controls of the hotel screens yet again. "TI is a signal-enhancement, computer-networking company, with headquarters set up in one Blackpool, England. Their major products involve the extension and magnification of all areas of telecommunications. They were instrumental in bringing in the first stable, secure 5G to the first-world nations, and boasted the production of converter kits for applying signals technology to pretty much any appliance around the house." The Swede explained.  
"Furthermore, they've partnered with Viber-Optic to usher in the era of transcending-light communication, having achieved that about a year ago, though it's not at the sustainably-operable level right now. Still they made true on their name, for Tachyons are supposed to always be faster than light." The CFO of KAM continued the description.  
"Viber-Optic. My mother and stepfather's company." Naoko identified.  
"Yes..." Yada just realized and scratched the back of her head.  
"Perfect! So we'll just ask for it? Yada, as KAM's CFO, you should have no issue waltzing in to claim it." Bellamy proposed.  
"Unfortunately, that's not possible, Bellamy. Remember that I had to test to make sure you, Nylen, and Miho were not defectors either. I couldn't find the chance to do the same for the rest of the Alliance."  
Yada sighed worriedly. "You think they've helped to surveil the TI building like no tomorrow. Therefore, we'd be dead the second we walk in without proper equipment." She put the pieces together.  
"We have to do this on our own. The only people we can trust right now is whoever else is in this room." The Chairman coldly considered.  
"It's... Definitely tough to label all of our blood-brothers and sisters suspicious, but with how tight of a fist we've been operating lately, it cannot be helped." Miho noted.  
"Okay. So we need a plan of infiltration." Naoko snickered. "Good thing we have one of the almighty masters of tactical invasions before us."  
"Used to be almighty. Sure hope I can get my win back with this one."  
"Just like Naoko-san said, Kato. We're here to stay. Run it by us, and we'll see it through." Yada assured him.  
"Right. Well, this is what I've been thinking..." Kato switched screens once more.  
After a few hours of briefing, the team got dressed, packed up any gear they needed from the suites, and left Naples on a five-hour plane ride to the marquee tourist destination of the United Kingdom. Most of the team were resting up on the private jet like last time, but Yada stayed vigilant, perhaps out of awareness over what happened last time. Though she hardly had to concern herself of the chances of its repetition... Seeing as how the pilot was Kato himself this time.  
Yada was seen kneeling in prayer right before Miho. _I hope to the Lord that you are as well as you seem, Miho-san. Surely, a strong-minded woman like yourself will remain adamant to the cause he cast aside, and feel all the more empowered for it._ She finished and looked on for a few more seconds. She then moved on, briefly locating Naoko resting on her side just before the cockpit area. The CFO fixed her blanket, and then reached the control room. "Still going strong, Kato?" She peeked her head over the chair.  
"You know I don't tire out easily." He didn't look away from the night skies and bright moon.  
Yada gave a swift scoff, before helping herself to the copilot spot and looking out the side window. "I see you got your Kato Custom AtTac Suit up and running. Are the expanding nanobots really coming from under your skin?" She asked.  
Kato showed one forearm, with it suddenly manifesting the glove and vambrace, before dissipating without requiring any additional movements. "Armor particles travel across my bloodstream and manifest close to where they are within nanoseconds of my command to do so. You wouldn't believe the research and experimentation to make this work, though."  
"I imagine. Only for you and a couple thousand other private consumers; until armies begin thinking their soldiers' lives are each worth an extensive surgery and weeks of configuration therapy, I don't see the fruits of your efforts being spread too much." Yada looked up in thought.  
"They don't have to get it if they don't want to. Not going to bother me." Kato gave a light smirk. "Has Akihisa been doing well?" He then queried.  
"Fourteen months out of the hospital and counting. A new record. Likely one more major visit, and he'll never have to go back." Yada answered. "Thank you for the concern." She acknowledged.  
"How about Nakanishi as your protege? I heard," Kato rechecked his timekeeper. "...He's taken up some of your responsibilities during your first crucial absence. He up to the task?"  
"Heh, if he can get past his nerve tics." Yada grinned. "What about you? Found another worthy recruit during some secret missions?"  
"There's many who share our sympathies and ties to commitment, surprising as it is to say given the social climate. Still, finding the truly loyal in the bunch remains a challenge." Kato finally gave an aside glance to her before returning gaze to the skies. "I see Miho has been keeping you on the iron. RockTape's lining your shoulder blades." He stated.  
Yada winced and then rubbed one of the aforementioned body parts. "Any mention of those areas makes it hurt now, thanks a lot."  
Kato looked down and sighed.  
"Got any new scars, while we're on the skin?" Yada returned the favor.  
"A Triad bladed my right parietal bone and trailed it down a bit of my occipital too. It's been," Kato checked his watch before retorting further. "A month now, though, so hair's covering it while it heals now. You can feel it if you want." He suggested.  
Yada smugly smirked at the suggestion and ultimately took him up on it. "Yep, there's a ridge. Hasn't slowed you down any?"  
"Not for a second." Kato responded.  
Yada settled back into her chair.  
"Have-" Kato shook his head.  
"Hm?" She noticed his hesitation.  
Kato bit his lower lip. "Have you got anyone... Barring family waiting for you to get back?" Kato wondered.  
The CFO played with the bangs in front of her right eye after processing what the CEO asked her. "No... Too busy with work to be dating."  
"Totally understandable." The Chairman had a quick glimpse of a smile.  
A semi-long silence followed after this sequence. An awkward, semi-long silence.  
"Alright, Kato, there's no way around it." Yada sat straight up.  
The man merely nodded in response.  
"We can't just keep believing that there's no enmity between us." Yada became more blunt.  
"One-sided, as it may be." The Chairman reacted.  
"Hey, I walked away from you. Don't tell me you don't hold a grudge." She reasoned.  
"I'm really not. You thought it best." He insisted.  
"Kato... You know I tried. All I could." The CFO asserted.  
"Not as much as you did back in," Kato swiftly looked back at the quartz on his wrist. "Fukuoka several years back."  
"That was a mystery you wanted me to unravel. But since then, you've kept throwing impossible tasks my way." She noted.  
"Well, why can't I have just a few things to myself? I've given a lot to you, to our friends, and everyone else dear in my life." He refocused.  
"Sure. But after you unintentionally strangled me while asleep because you've been having night terrors of the worst of your thoughts, you can't expect your almost-victim to just handwave that without wanting to hear about it." Yada pointed out.  
"I said I was incredibly sorry about that." His tone broke slightly.  
"And I believe you. But that's not the point." She spoke back.  
"What is?" Kato turned to her for the first time in this new thread.  
"This should be easy. You having difficulties; you having me to help you deal with them. Why didn't you learn this while in the AssUniv Program? That you're not alone?" Yada interrogated.  
"..." Finally, the Chairman was left without words.  
Yada sighed, rising up, about to leave the cockpit. "How are you both the most dependable man on the planet, and yet your best friends cannot rely on you to tell them what's up with you?" She reiterated before finally departing.   
When she fully left, Kato flipped the autopilot on and felt his forehead, putting on a frustrated expression.  
Naoko, revealed to be consciously awake at that point, listened throughout most of the conversation, hearing Yada pass by her, and formed a rather troubled look herself.  
The hours went by, and before long, Kato landed the extra-large private jet in a private bunker of Blackpool International Airport, and a few minutes later, everyone had their gear and mobilized, moving out of the airstrip altogether in a crimson Bentley Bentayga SUV. When they arrived at the Sheraton, the team all went through the details of their raid on the Tachyon Industries headquarters (including one last slideshow, VITaL surfing and technology tuning) and awaited the impending clear morning to strike.  
At Tachyon Industries, all suits and uniforms are keeping calm and carrying on their usual business, unaware of the stealthy infiltration about to befall their lead building.   
"At Tachyon Industries," A local surround sound system with a feminine voice spoke in conjunction with the array of large screens displaying the company's key visuals to all in its halls. "All of us are significantly driven at a molecular level to bring about dramatic improvements to how everybody conveys what they want to and must. We believe that interaction is the most important aspect of human life, and by virtue, connection is the most important bridge an entity can construct. In the absence of applicability for face-to-face that was mainstream in the past, Tachyon Industries strives to produce the option beyond - lightspeed beyond. Wild as may seem to believe that our conversations, our means of receiving information from others, can become faster than merely speaking to each other, but Tachyon Industries is at the forefront of making such a situation possible. Faster-Than-Light, or FTL in short, communication is possible, transmitting thoughts, perceptions, and observations, and allowing receivers to process them within mere picoseconds. Applications of such efficient management of info delivery makes Tachyon products among the most universally applicable in all aspects of life. Whether you are a part of a strike team whose life hinges on improvised coordination, a desk operator working remotely from your partner, a bedridden child still eager to attend class, or a grandparent preparing to meet with your descendants, Tachyon Industries will provide you with a solution - Faster than you can speak." The recording finished.  
"Heh..." A feminine voice couldn't help uttering... From behind a ventilation shaft? "Kato, you ever think of letting them take your Nano-K-Odec for a spin? Make it faster than it already is?" She spoke as she continued to crawl through the metal channels, all AtTac-suited-up.  
Kato was revealed to be similarly armored, and in a compromising position himself... Except he's out in the middle of the sun, stuck to the Tachyon Industries exterior. Yada was nearby, Octo-Ink-mapped to the walls as well. "You still can't really trust FTL communications yet, honestly. There is still great preoccupation about receiving such information destroying physics within our faculties."  
"What would that mean?" Yada curiously wondered.  
"Anything from the loss of the affected sense, to our entire systems simulating past experiences all over again." Kato theorized.  
"Huh. Still wouldn't be a problem for you, would it?" Naoko added on.  
"Even I have things I'd rather not be reminded of. And I won't risk a chance of witnessing them again if I can help it." The KAM CEO refocused. "Now enough talk. We have a antiresonance device to nab. Have you gotten undercover yet, Naoko?"  
"Hold your horses; I'm almost at the target location." The MoD asset responded. True to her word, she reached the shaft she was looking for seconds later. "Alright, in position." Rather conveniently, she also heard the door open up and footsteps coming into the room - a bathroom, by the way. Naoko eyed her target, a bespectacled employee in a rather unique uniform, and perhaps just a few centimeters larger than her overall. When the latter reached one of the stalls, Naoko dropped from her vantage point, silently landing behind her intended victim. She closed the door before it could go beyond ajar, alerting the employee to her presence and forcing her to turn around instinctively. This only nets her a shotei palm strike to the chin, knocking her clear out. Naoko catches her before she can fall to the floor, and brings her into the stall.  
Roughly a minute later, a woman with British facial features came out of the lavatory the public way, adorning the same uniform someone in the stall had. "You save these light-bending facial-construction modules for undercover ops, Kato? I'll have you know, some of my peers in the MoD would love to get their hands on this." Naoko's voice came from her.  
"They'll be disappointed. The second they get punched in the affected area, the machine recognizes the depression and will try its best to adjust accordingly... Resulting in a marshmallow-filled cheek most likely." Kato cautioned.   
"Oh... Nevermind then." She disregarded nonchalantly. To complete the aforementioned outfit, she pulled out her own pair of glasses, without any magnification. Furthermore though, the pair was infused with the same technology as the AtTac Suits' goggles/lens, and so Naoko was able to make her way to her next destination without too many suspicious movements.  
"Ah, there you are." A gruff, hardened voice behind Naoko proclaimed.  
The Ministry agent's eyes widened, casually looking behind her with just enough curiosity to not be awkward.  
"Oh, not you ma'am; carry on." The armored leader of the security detail, as he was revealed to be, assured her with a wave and then focused on the ones before her; more of the team in business suits instead. "Have you fully scanned everyone coming into the building?" He interrogated.  
"All entrances, metal detectors, facial recognition, the whole bloody she-bang. No Japanese trying to pass as one of us." The seemingly-undercover muscle responded back.  
"How about a Swede? Or a Brit that's much bigger than the rest?" The operative suggested instead.  
"Nobody like that either." The other shook his head. By now, Naoko had continued on her way and passed this latter detail. "Seriously though, we really have to ramp up everything because of a tip from an investor?" He sounded a tad agitated.  
"Look man; one of our big partners was recently struck a major blow and lost their boss. Then we get a call that something might happen to us like it did them? That's something to worry about. To prepare about. And I don't appreciate that you're not taking it seriously." He bounced back.  
"Fuckin' whatever, man." He swatted it aside. "We done?"  
"Just keep watch, prick. We're done." The head noted, each going their own way.  
Once Naoko made two corners from the conversation site, she went to her smartphone. "Confirmed, Tsuchiya has notified this building's bouncers about us. High alert."  
"As anticipated. Still, we can work with this. Get to the fortieth floor, Naoko." Yada reacted.  
"Got it." She stated, putting down her cover device and proceeding towards the elevators.


	8. Unanticipated Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An infiltration on Tachyon Industries is a go! Let's see how it fares now that Kato is back in the game!

In no time flat, Naoko got to the floor she had intended to reach, still in disguise and face-masked as a longtime employee she had pacified earlier. She maintains a passive character en route to her target; the external surveillance room. She eventually finds it when she passes by an isolated corridor with the door ajar for just a little bit, but long enough for her to discern a grid of monitors. She takes a deep breath and heads towards the nearest lavatory, where the Agent proceeds to unpin her ID, and switching out the titles on the nameplate, so that she was now a CRO. Finally, she returned to the door she noticed and knocked.  
A gruff, 6'4" man clad in tactical black opened the door, surprised at what he sees. "Who are you? This is a classified area."  
"Nothing's classified to the CROs of this place." Naoko (as Maryanne Bristol) brandished her badge and walked past him, much to his confusion. She also switched to an all but legitimate Leeds accent for this English cover.  
"CRO...?" The operator was mystified.   
"What's a bigshot doing here?" The other operator turned back to see Naoko-as-Maryanne.  
"No time for slamming on the anchors, burk, we have a potentially serious security issue looming." Naoko stopped and clutched the second's chair while gazing at the camera feed.  
"Why weren't we notified?" The first one walked closer to the conversation.   
"Note just came in, and I happened to be nearby when it did. Now again, no time for anchors!" Naoko noted, then returning stare at the screens. "Now point all the cameras on the East and South sides toward the city tower, and then raise it for a 160-degree angle when based towards the bottom. You, do the same for the North and West." Naoko ordered.  
The greeter takes a seat and begins manipulating some controls. "What's this all about?" He queries further.  
"People mentioning a ghosting aircraft keeps floating in and around our airspace. We have to give the benefit of a doubt they're not there to get a sneak peek of our R&D and they are really mapping a layout of the floors." Naoko proposed.  
"Hmph, serious enough I guess." The second operator acknowledged. His cameras all looked upwards at this point. "Alright, so do we have an outline of what we're looking for? Perhaps even a witness sighting image?" He looked back and asked.  
"Keep concentration; no idea when it might show up again, if at all!" She physically twisted his head back. "Anyways, they saw it looks like an anchor in shape; not certain if any more wings or how its sustaining flight. Try to look for that." Naoko added on, transitioning her hands from the comforters of the rotating chairs to onto their clavicles now.  
"Alright..." They both collectively said. But just when they became engrossed with their new tasks, Naoko saw her chance, pinching down on both of their vagus nerves simultaneously, which almost instantly knocked them out. She then pushed one of them aside and made sure the cameras locked up such that they contained no peripheral of the walls/glass they were attached to. "Kato, Yada, are you still on standby?"  
"We're all set, Naoko, Kato is just on radio silence right now, psyching himself up again." Yada, remaining Octo-Ink cloaked, looked underneath her, seeing him sticking to the wall still.  
Kato's InReTs screen indicated that he was listening to "Burning in the Rain" by Roberta until he sees the CFO leer his way. "Are we set?" He reactivated his comms.  
"That we are; you both have a clear route to the roof." Naoko notified. In between her words, the sounds of unconscious bodies being moved were audible as well, for she was hiding them within a lockable maintenance closet.  
"Excellent. We'll be getting the 4D antinoise device in a tad." Yada briefly mimicked some of Naoko's accent when she responded this time. "Let's do this, Kato." She required.  
"Already done." Kato responded. They both wall-climbed all the way to the roof, which took a little more than three minutes. From there, they both switched vision faculty to X-Ray to locate the enclosed atrium for Tachyon Industries' archives room, finding it after the third set of block glass. "There we are." He rhetorically noted.  
"No fold-out opening traditional to most ceiling windows." Yada crouched down and felt the durable pieces of silicon.   
"Hardly a nuisance; it's likely Tachyon probably uses concrete airholes using the circular vents we keep passing by to simulate natural ventilation in that method's place." Kato took a knee beside her. "So, how shall we get through this? Without extreme thermal resistance, I suggest a high-frequency cutter." He whipped out his modified Microtech Dirac Delta OTF tactical knife.  
"The classic lift-the-piece-up-and-leave-it-at-the-side method." Yada clapped her hands together with anticipation. Kato nodded and flip-tossed it to her, which she caught. He then attached two sets of Wire Wrests to serve as horizontal cable grips as Yada carved out a circle big enough for the two of them to fall through simultaneously. When the start matched the end, Kato quickly held onto his end to prevent it from falling, and Yada quickly took to the other end. With the obstruction out of the way, they then dropped through landing silently on the ground below. "CFO turned cat-burglar... At least what we're burgling is what belongs to us."  
"Which means this is making good on a deal. Think about it like that." Kato assured. They then walked over to a glass display where the Chairman was able to identify the antinoise device. "Hm, standard locks. But a circuitry inspection reveals the springs are loaded with over 30,000 volts, and the keyhole has a metallurgy scanner; any alloy they don't accept going in there is going to fire off a gigantic electric discharge into the wielder." He observed with the mechanism.  
"Good thing we brought a plastic Aero-Tumbler." Yada spun it out of her left waist. The polymer was not violently rejected by the entrance, and a press of the button caused strong jets of wind to blow the tumblers of the mechanism into place, unlocking the semi-advanced display case.  
Kato quickly threw his hand in to grip the device and pull it out just as fast. He thoroughly inspected every part of it with a judging gaze.  
"What's wrong? Is that not it?" Yada closed the door slowly.  
"Not that. It's just... Too easy." Kato put it in a belt bag behind him. "Too easy for when we know these guys already got a tip."  
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!" A foreign voice shouted, originating from one of the many SWAT-styled security guards that swarmed the room and taking cover behind several pillars, turned-over tables, and even some of their allies' own ballistic shields.  
Meanwhile, Naoko heard the entrance swing open again, and she turned away from the screens to see the new visitor. She had her cover and accent re-prepared for the threat... Only to realize it was someone she knew it wouldn't work on.  
"Missus, what are you doing here? You're surely not a part of security detail-" The Security captain from the floors below initially greeted, until he too realized who the person before him was, and put his phone back behind him (something Naoko noticed). "In fact, your division is not on this floor." He continued on almost seamlessly.  
Naoko threw up a hand in a pleasant matter. "I just got relocated?" She quipped.  
"I see that it was a wise choice to ramp-up security today." The man cracked his knuckles and pushed forward. Naoko dropped the act and got into a semi-ready stance.  
"FREEZE!!" Another angry brit with a Benelli Vinci shotgun yelled.  
"What's the play?" Yada briefly glanced at Kato before unhooking her Hudson pistol behind her. "Can't disconnect their thoughts from their guns?"  
"I did lay down an Auger program to passively pierce their firewalls, but this is a broadband company." He reasoned.  
"Ah right. Their communications would have to be super-secure." Yada considered.  
"So not going to work for the first few... Minutes, at least." Kato checked his watch beforehand.  
"HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!" The first one, armed with an AR-57 SMG, exclaimed again.   
"So, hard way." Yada sighed. "No deaths."  
"As the queen wishes." The Chairman agreed. A splitsecond later, they both whipped out their sidearms and fired upwards, playing on the guard's instincts to fall completely behind cover allowing them to do so as well.   
Naoko pulls back on the guard's first right cross and ripostes with a side elbow swing to his chin... Which hardly fazes him at all; revealed when he shakes his head nonchalantly in reaction. Naoko shows her worried impressment for a second and looks away as he chuckles a bit... Before she punts his jewels as hard as she can. This time, he did show some signs of hurt.  
In the meantime, Kato and Yada pick off a few while taking potshots from their pillar and square alcove respectively. When Kato senses the golden opportunity, he empties one of his Kimber pistols and allowing the magazine and extra cartridge fall loudly onto the floor. This caused all of the guards to believe that was their moment to advance and step out of cover; something the Chairman noticed when he used X-Ray and Infrared to see them rise out of cover. Their mistake, naturally, for Kato was able to map their position and use his Point-Blink Shooting, incapacitating sixteen hostiles within three seconds (using an extended magazine in his other Kimber).  
Yada notices one other on the far corner of the room, about to take aim at Kato from his left. She's ready to take a shot at him in kind, but notices his reflection from a display case and cannot be certain which one is which. As such, she steps out of cover and risks exposing her position. The guard realizes her presence and redirects his aim to fire... Into her own reflection. Now he was the one who revealed himself... And he pays for it. Kato noticed her bout of trickery, and applauds it with a nod. She seems a little appreciative.  
Kato then swiftly turned his head at the main entrance again. "Next wave incoming. We have to beat them to the punch."  
"And then what?" Yada attached a red-dot sight underneath her Hudson's barrel and folded-out the stock to a SMG-45.  
"We find a safe spot to break through their glass curtain wall and run down the building to escape." Kato continued on, pulling back the slide of his earlier-emptied Kimber and proceeding.  
The duo bypassed the impending bottleneck by expending a smoke grenade and sliding underneath reacting fire, taking down two each while doing so. When they flew back onto their feet, their arm-mounted ballistic shields served them well in blocking fire while they switched targets in a strike pursuit. One took to a DSR-Precision sniper rifle, and aimed it at the female, firing at her right eye (which was the furthest away from the Keysi shield block). He misses by just a centimeter, instead putting a hole through her ballistic shield and twisting her into cover behind a pillar, with enough time to assess the damage with surprise. Angered by his ally's near-injury, Kato responds with a headshot with a Shock-Out round in kind.  
Naoko's opponent in the surveillance room steps back a few times, clutching his nether region while doing so. She follows it up with a high knee to the cheek, and then a push front kick once back on the ground. The guard now hit the far wall behind him, but recovers enough to initiate combat for real. He catches Naoko's charging left roundhouse, pushing it down to set up a belly-to-belly toss that hurls the agent into several of the monitors, breaking them. While she lays sideways on the ground, he attempts a heavy stomp, which the former avoids by rolling away, finding just enough time to get back onto her feet.  
Ducking underneath a right hook grants Naoko a chance counterattack with a rising uppercut, followed by a pull-back from the reactionary backfist to charge a superkick to the chest. Naoko attempts to follow it up with a heel-sweep kick, but the man stands firm in spite of the attack to his shins. He punches right through Naoko's hastily-drawn block, putting her on all fours again; perfect to be used as a battering rams that throws her right into the metal closet she put the other two in earlier. As she gets up, she sees his right straight just in time and bobs her head out of the way.  
The agent is forced to weave out of the way of more strikes, which result in more and more dents on the lockers (two screws even pop out of place as a result of the repeated pressure!) until Naoko sees a moment to flank him, throwing her right arm across his waist and ducking low so that the rest of her body was now directly behind him. All she had to do was wrestle down, forcing him to fall back onto his nape. When he rolled back onto his knees, Naoko charged in with a bicycle knee, which the guard managed to block, pushing her away. When he attempted yet another haymaker, Naoko turned away and bent over to avoid it and face his back as he passes immediately. This perfect evasion allowed her seamless transition to a rear-naked choke with bodyscissors, which included a few elbow smashes to the back of his kidney.   
Kato and Yada continue their advance through the upper floors, which were persisting in blaring the annoyingly-loud alarm bell; several straggling employees could be seen making a run for the marked exits with some equipment and documents as the duo and the guards continued to wage battle. Kat saw three enemies all lined up behind the same wall cover and decided to flank them, rolling over a table while doing so. Just as his back was about to curve off, He then activated his Vaccuum Carry, forcing the metal surface to put into stasis directly behind him. He then no-handed cartwheeled to the other side, and when fully past the threshold, he pressed on his InReTs, causing the platform to kinetically shoot away from him and into the three unsuspecting troops at a heavily-damaging velocity.  
Yada slid across another table herself, using the bullet-time to help her lock down on two other guards while making herself a smaller, more mobile, and therefore more difficult target to hit. The end of the lectern gives her the momentum to bust right through a conference room to cover from the resurgence of garrison in the halls. The two lying in wait there weren't as much trouble in comparison, as Yada kept the rigid parts of her Ballistic Shield up to her face, which successfully defended against three bullets breaching her centerline. A backspin into a three-point center-axis-relock stance set her up to quickly eliminate them in kind.   
Kato dives low and sweeps a guard's legs from underneath them, so that his torso now laid across his right clavicle. He then spun around violently, swinging the poor soul's head into two of his cohorts before hammer-throwing him into a nearby pillar. Looking back to see how Yada was doing, he notices her within one of the conference rooms, but also that someone is aiming down a B+T GL-06 grenade launcher, to be fired at Yada when she inevitably leaves through the other opening. Kato's eyes widened and he instinctively charges the man (knowing that his sidearms have emptied some time ago and there has not been a chance to reload them to this point). The ensuing tackle causes the discharged explosive projectile to be shot out of the window and detonate rather harmlessly in the air, which Yada noticed when she did peer out.  
The woman kept her aim trained on the sounds of struggle in the distance, including when it could be discerned that another had joined the fray to help their colleague. But one hiss, a strobe, and a large set of grunting noises later, and Kato appears from over the horizon perfectly fine. She gestures her satisfaction over the course of events, until she sees even more reinforcements from behind him - a complement that altogether numbered fifty, actually. Kato slid in between openings of the multiple cubicles and took potshots to initially dissuade advances until he got behind a wall side-by-side with Yada, weapons at the ready.  
"Just give up! There's no escaping here!" A new seeming leader of the pack of the hounds announced. He then silently gestured to his colleagues to resume their swarm and flank.  
_Did the Auger find the codes yet?_ Yada asked the Chairman rather insistently. She also subtly indicated her ammunition pouch housing only one full magazine for her Hudson left, and without any left for her SMG.   
_Got it. But we'll still have to be quick, for I think they can reboot and alter their systems in just a few seconds._ Kato confirmed, rotating a digital knob on his InReTs screen.  
_Still going down?_ The CFO requested further affirmation.  
_You know it_. Kato stated, before pressing a button, while Yada tossed her discarded, empty clip into the air past her. When they head clicks and a falling metallic noise rather than any form of combustion, they knew their time was now, and so they charged towards the far curtain wall that was already damaged by the propelled grenade.  
The captain opposing Naoko manages to pull her off of him, swing-tossing her back towards the control center; she lands almost perfectly into the swiveling chair. When she sees him come forward again, she gets back onto her feet while still seated, and swung the chair's wheels at his hip. He pulls back, but then Naoko pulls off a Pele kick with the chair still held, causing the hard plastic rollers to strike the guard directly on his crown. She gives a little bunny hop after landing to spike the chair on top of his prone form, and then pushes it away to initiate the Twister neck crank, utilizing all of her enhanced strength to accomplish. Despite the man's struggles, he could not escape the hold as Naoko was always at too awkward of an angle for his limbs to reach towards. After roughly ninety seconds of continuously wrenching it in, Naoko's opponent finally passes out from all of the pain incurred; she still keeps it going for another ten seconds after he's become unresponsive to ensure he wasn't faking.  
The agent kicked the guard off of her and tidied herself up from the scuffle. "Welp, high time I got out of here!" She got rid of any forensic evidence of her exploits and was about to make off, before recalling the phone that the captain was holding when he arrived. She briefly reached behind him to claim it before actually departing.  
Kato and Yada both make it out as the first few bullets of the guards' rebooted firearms fly way past their falling heads. They both grapple back to the wall using their Wire Wrests and start running down it.  
"Wait, so why aren't we gliding away from the vicinity again, even after your went through so much trouble to get a functional wingsuit on these armors?" Yada asked over the fast winds hitting their sprint.  
"That's why." He pointed towards the swarm of security drones, which were summoned after the alarm was triggered and the threat levels escalated. They featured mounted MGs and used them to open fire on the descending duo. "Easier to avoid getting shot when your legs are more involved." He concluded.  
"Clearly!" Yada acknowledged while continuing her stride.  
The drones' suppressive fire shattered many windows in an attempt to pick the invaders off, but the two remained just ahead of the onslaught. Sensing after a half-minute that they were running out of building, Kato then threw a Microwave Pulse grenade at the squad, shutting them down and allowing him and Yada to jump off to a lower commercial roof.  
"Whew! Out!" Yada exclaimed, catching her breath.   
"N, are you out as well?" Kato returned to his communications for a brief interval.   
"Already washing myself of the place." She whispered while putting a corner between herself and TI's west entrance. The guards checking for all employees were briefly out of post due to investigating a janitor's closet fire... No doubt an unavoidable distraction caused by a certain someone.  
"Alright, gather the remote communicator, and contact M and the others. Coordinate an evac zone. Inform us of it and we'll be there too." Yada requested.  
"Y..." The CEO identified by initial again.  
"Hm?" She looked his way, and then to what he himself was looking at. Over two roof-raised lips were the faces of a police snipe and spotter pair. Both forces stared at each other for a few seconds, before the KAM-suited duo whisked off, leaving only their dust forms behind.  
"Get them!" The sniper team radioed in the intruders' external presence to the rest of the scouting parties. As they continued their escape, more and more boys in black started appearing. Despite their yelling demands, warning shots, and then actual aim-down shots, Kato and Yada did not hesitate, until eventually reaching a spot where they could safely descend; a rooftop staircase down a takeout building. Of course, the coppers down below had the directly-opposite idea, and the two saw some climbing up the final set en route to taking over the rooftop. Yada managed to leap right over all of their heads and land on the handlebars, which distracted them as Kato came in with a vicious shoulder check that sent them all tumbling back down the way they came. They slid down as well to reach ground level, scaring a number of chefs and waiters.  
It seems that some police squadrons recognized their descent and tried to catch them at the exit, as the duo saw them begin making it through the restaurant's front entrance. They naturally decided to try and evade further by going out the back alley, but some more checkered uniforms show up through that threshold too. Kato starts the path-clearing by taking a boiling pot of broth from one chef's still-active stove into his EM-Traverse (and thermally insulated) hand and tossing its contents into three of the burly men, turning them into crying fetuses in seconds. The three in the back managed to either be unintentionally shielded or get away from the spray; the latter case moved right into Yada's skillet-throwing, with one aluminum bottom making a nice thunk noise with a forehead. Another managed to catch the instrument, but Yada anticipated that, firing a Shock-Out round onto it so that the effect transitioned to his hand.  
By this point, others from the front of the diner arrived, and Kato pulled onto to his right and backed up, causing the guards to trip over each other in their attempts to get at him. Any that chose to take the higher ground and flank their mound with the steel island got their legs swept out from under them when Kato punched their shins. The Chairman also found an opportunity to employ a fridge door, smacking one on the nose. The other behind him took to a knife-sharpening stick and attempted to lunge underneath the hinge at Kato, which the latter sidestepped. The CEO then pulled on the arm so that he too ate a faceful of cold metal, and then kicked his knees down, bending him over so that the fridge and all of its pantry could fall on top of him (the construct itself was left supported by the aforementioned island, so that it didn't crush him absolutely).  
Yada dodged several kitchen knife strikes from two opponents, and when she saw another attempt to get her from behind, she broke one's arm and allowed him to fall over. The other one saw his mistimed stab attempt be countered, with the leading arm being manipulated so that Yada could parry the entirety of the other's assault. This transitions to a human shield that almost sees the cop diagonally slash at his friend's throat. When he corrected himself and tried to reach over his colleague's shoulder, the CFO made him pay for it with a Shock-Pad to the face, and claiming the utensil for herself. Rather than employ the blade itself, however, she instead took to its polished wooden handle, blocking one's haymaker with and jabbing the grip into the side of the man's neck, forcibly making him choke. She then kicked a metal container once housing a lot of onion slices into the path of another cop, tripping him up; Yada caught his head and put it down on the island, to be sandwiched with another icepick-like swing.  
One guard managed to steal the weapon from Yada, surprising her enough to allow a chokeslam lift. Yada used the extra elevation to break the sprinkler higher up; the jet of water distracted him enough so that she could slam his head on the metal surface too; she then claimed a champagne bottle and smashed him over the scalp with it.   
Kato finally dealt with the remainder of the business by tilting his head from one cop's strongest punch; the feedback on the cabinet indicated to him that flour was stored there. He front-kicked the man aside and into his only other conscious teammates, and took the sack out from the opening, and lobbing it at them. One manages to catch it (which still caused the white powder to fly all over most of them), wherein Kato claims a kitchen torch from the shelves, activating it and tossing it as well, causing a makeshift napalm that sends the enemies all back. It also rendered the hostiles too busy dealing with burns to worry about the duo, who then urgently made their leave.   
Once outside, it is found that one copper was wisely waiting right outside, and the second the door flipped open, he sprang out of hiding and clutched Yada in a standing rear naked choke. She would not have to gag for too long however, as Kato's front kick to his back stuns him for a hip toss. In the alleyway still, a garrison of more cops could be seen arriving in their cruisers. The two both take a deep breath and keep on running further away and deeper into the tighter corridors that the cars couldn't get through. One quicker individual does get more ground and the two realize that while he cannot catch them, he can still keep within coherent gaze, and therefore requires incapacitation; this came when they both jumped down a ledge, which the man copied, only to get both of his popliteal areas kicked, setting up the Meeting in the Middle (the tag team finisher of [#DIY](https://www.deviantart.com/tag/diy)), where Kato formed a packed knee that landed in tandem with Yada's raised instep.  
After another minute of parkour, the team finds a spot and activates Octo-Ink, causing the swarm to run right by them with flickering flashlights and... Furious attack dogs? Regardless, when the combination of sirens, yells, and barks died down, they both stepped out of the far walls of the alley.  
"Hm, so now your Octo-Ink now has scent-nullification?" Yada held her hip condescendingly as her mask disintegrated.  
"It came to mind after dealing with K-9 units who were unhappy we dealt with drug dens in Canada before them." Kato grinned.  
"Right." They then climbed up to a fire escape, where a large duffel bag was left behind. They changed into some inconspicuous clothing (for Kato, a zipper hoodie and striped, nylon sweatpants. For Yada, a white camisole underneath a green cargo short-sleeve jacket and denim short-shorts) and made their way discreetly out of the police perimeter. While acting as a touring couple, Yada felt her left earrings to re-engage communications "N, we're all set for extraction. Where shall we meet?" She informed.  
"Near the pier, Northern end of Bernard Ave." Naoko asserted.  
"Got it; see you there in about 8." She cut the transmission again and returned her second arm to wrapping around Kato's close one. "Look at us, pretending to be an ordinary thing again. The CFO acknowledged.  
"I would never try to pretend to be one; it's not for me." Kato, continuing to scope the premises, muttered.  
"Sure. But just because it isn't the most unrecognized course of action, doesn't mean it's not really worth doing." Yada bounced back.  
Kato sighed. "Will you really be holding this against me for the rest of our lives?" He inquired, before looking at his watch. "For all of several decades, even?" He suggested further.  
"Ohoh, and then some." Yada laid her head on his shoulder to complete the situation.  
The next nine minutes saw them go as quickly, yet as nonchalantly, as possible, enjoying the occasional passing sight and/or landmark before finally coming across the street Naoko mentioned. When they transitioned to a secluded corridor, they found the van, with the rest of their team scattered nearby.  
"Ah, there they are!" Kat relievingly noted, closing her laptop as one of the last things to pack up.  
"Best get going. You got the device, yes?" Bellamy questioned.  
"Yep! Got it right here!" The CFO confirmed, brandishing the device from her jacket's inner right pocket, and rushing ahead of Kato.  
"Awesome!" Naoko embraced her as they got close again. "Alright, come on, we'll get through the next steps when we're clear. You too, Kato-kun!" She announced, hopping into the back of the van.  
"I'm coming, I'm coming." The Chairman acknowledged the command. But then...  
"!!" Kato then stopped dead in his tracks.  
The CFO notices her CEO's blunt hesitation and looks back at him. "Kato?" She called out his name.  
"What's the hold-up?" Naoko double-took between them.  
Kato's eyes now widened and gazed around frantically, as if suddenly in a significant state of anxiety at his surroundings. "Oh no..." He blurted.  
All of the team realized at that moment what was going on. "The HYM virus! Our boss has contracted it!" Nylen notified.  
As if on cue, Kato's legs trembled. Had it not been for Yada's timely reaching out to support him, he probably would've fallen over in seconds. "I got you, igotyou igotyou! Miho, help me get him in the van!"  
The Captain complied, hoisting the chairman onto one of her shoulders, and they made haste into the vehicle and driving away from the premises.  
A ten-minute ride followed back to a private research facility near the River Wyre. During the interval, however, Kato's condition worsened, to the point that his expression was perpetually stuck in an awful grimace. As soon as they left Blackpool, streams of tears rolled out from his compacted eyelids, and several minutes into the outskirts, he began spasming.  
"Guys, this is getting really bad!" The MoD asset asserted while helping Yada and Bellamy keep him down, preventing him from hurting himself.  
"Everybody who knows him would know he has some of the most painful regrets to deal with. No wonder it's hurting him so much." Nylen noted while keeping an active eye on the road.   
"Boss..." Miho looked back with absolute worry from the passenger seat of the Trafic.  
With no time to waste, they had reached their destination. But once Miho lifted Kato back up onto her shoulders again, he suddenly vomited blood behind her. "Shit!" She heard the repulse.  
"Handle with him care! In here!" Yada reminded and pointed towards the closest door.  
The team hastily cleared the path for Head Captain and Chairman.  
"Shouldn't we not be in one of these stations, on the account of the Alliance that isn't us is not able to be trusted?" Naoko noted as she barged first through the front door, and swatting aside old supplies on a metal countertop to make way for Kato.  
"This facility was made by Norio on Kazuto's behest. Only he, Kazuhiko and I believe it exists." Miho explained, setting her Chairman down on it. Seconds later, as everyone searched around for medical supplies and equipment, Kato's hands tightly gripped his scalp. As he dragged his fingers down, gashes from his nails could be seen being formed.  
Naoko noticed the self-abuse in horror. "Whoa! Nonono!" She immediately reached out and attempted to restrain his limbs. But despite using her bloodstream control to briefly enhance her strength, Kato was overpowering her, completing his lacerations by traveling them down to in front of, as well as behind his right ear. He then clutched the part of his chest in front of his heart, and his fingers dug in, creating new bloodspots.  
"We need to cure him fast!" Yada insisted, setting down some supplies that Bellamy and Nylen had instructed her to procure.  
"We can try, but it won't matter. Only Kato was anywhere near close to formulating a cure to this HYM virus." Nylen shook her head while one of her hands were in front of her mouth.  
"Yeah, and he wrote notes, but of course he used a special encryption to prevent Kingslayer eyes from finding out the backdoors of their own killer product. Son of a bitch!" Miho furiously threw the notebook at the wall.  
"There has to be something we can do!" Naoko struggled to say.  
"There is." Bellamy stepped in, carrying a box full of empty syringes. "Remember what Royce and Heller did to Project Zero all those years back?" The Brit questioned the two younger ladies.  
"Yeah, they mixed the Tentacles DNA with an amnesiac formula, so that the monster they were forced to create was a blank slate; didn't know how it was made, let alone what it could really do and not do-" Yada realized what they planned on doing given that brief reiteration. "We're going to pump him with mind-wiping drugs?" She propositioned.  
"Indeed. He can't regret what he can't remember, right?" Nylen rhetorically asked.  
"We're not going to make him braindead though, are we? I'm pretty sure he even feels shame for being born!" The Asset cautioned.  
"Not to worry. While catching up with Kato back in Italy, he did divulge some nuggets of knowledge about this Virus. It only takes on deepest, most harrowing, and despair-inducing memories of the victim. We can program the chemical to affect only those parts of his frontal lobe. Theoretically this will stave off the Virus' symptoms." The former SAS answered.  
"The worst of the worst, huh? Well, he's certainly going to need that purge." Miho, who switched with Naoko to keep his arms away from the rest of his body, snarked. "Naoko, Bellamy, keep him down and minimize his movements. Yada, keep an eye on his specs. Nylen... Administer the drug." She barked the next few orders.  
Everyone complied, and in the next minute, Nylen stuck the needle into Kazuhiko's frontal lobe and pressed down. Everyone then stepped away, as Kato's muscles relaxed and laid motionless on the makeshift operating table.  
"Yada, how is he?" Naoko looked her way.  
She took a look at the mobile EKG. "Vitals look pretty normal, if a bit on the lower side due to his comatose-like state." But just as she finished that sentence, they started flaring up again. "Wait a sec." The CFO then vigorously turned to the subject.  
Seconds later, Kato's eyes flared open. Like a man possessed, he restlessly sat up, and made another scan of his surroundings, not unlike the one he did before being brought into the Renault a mere twenty or so minutes ago.  
"Kato?" Miho tilted her head to meet him faraway from the side.   
The Chairman then looked at her curiously, though refraining from saying anything. 


	9. Matter of Busting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kato, infected with the HYM Virus? Can he be cured in time!? Will it work? What could be the side effects?
> 
> And most importantly, how will this impact the race to stop the Kingslayers before they can unleash their weapon on their next target?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. Stephen here with a rare note. I would like to mention that the idea of creating a bioweapon in the HYM Virus was conceived years ago, much earlier than ever was thought of this ongoing, worldwide crisis (My DeviantART wall confirms this).
> 
> I hope that none of you are offended by the noun of interest's presence in the story.

"..." Kato continued to silently stare curiously around in his surroundings once more after Kat's call out to him.  
"Kato-kun, are you alright now?" Miho asked.  
"Alright?" He leaped off of the makeshift operation platform. "No, not exactly."  
"Well, why not?" Kat reacted.  
"Because, well, you're all here." He took a step back. "Oh, I don't mean it like that; I do appreciate seeing the lot of you. To you Miho, it's very good to see you in person again; I hope the M-Gulf operation is going exceedingly well, and that Keitaro's next fight lands him his coveted 35th consecutive win. Do send him my regards!"  
"35th...?" The lead Captain squinted her eyes perplexingly.   
Kato then turned to Ballamy and Kat. "Captains Bellamy, Nylen, a pleasure to see you two as well. I trust Alliance recruitment remains effective in the Northern European region. Do remember that they must be run by Norio, Kazuhiro, or myself last." He continued.  
"Um..." The Swede was equally dumbfounded.  
"Agent-Trainer-Assassin extraordinaire, Naoko Akimoto. I too would say it's amazing to see you again, but I believe Karasuma and Karma would hear it halfway across the world and persecute me, so I will refrain." He bowed.  
Naoko mimicked confusion... But that would always be a given.  
"And..." He sighed. "Yada-san. Well, this was a lot sooner than I had hoped we'd have this interaction."  
The CFO vigilantly kept her ears open.   
"But since we're both here, I suppose I cannot let it pass. You deserve a vocal apology. So... I apologize." He expressed.  
"Apologize for what?" She inquired.  
"'Apologize for-?'" Kato cleared his throat. "I'm apologizing for breaking up with you."  
"You're waiting now to say that?" Naoko raised an eyebrow.  
"Yes, I understand a month is quite the amount of tardiness to offer a proper admittance of guilt, and if it meant anything, it did eat away at me for every second in between." Kato bounced back.  
"Wait, a month?!" Bellamy noticed the declaration of the time frame.  
"Hm?" The CEO was the one who looked puzzled now.  
"Chairman, what year do you think this is?" Kat questioned.  
"Year? 2017?" Kato answered.  
Everybody gasped loudly at that statement.  
"Kato lost all memories of the past five years!!" Yada exclaimed and observed.  
"And he's not even using his watch to tell the time!!" Naoko added on.   
"Whoa, five years?! I've been down for five years!?" He repeated. "Where have I been? Where are we now? Is this a cryogenic room? Is that it? Have I been kept in frozen stasis for all that time!?" Kato flailed around in the facility.   
"Chairman! No, no you've not been put into freezing! You just don't recall the last five years at all!" Kat relayed.  
"Well, why not?" Kato interrogated.  
"Mm, that's a tough question to answer. You see-" Naoko was about to answer, until Miho covered her mouth quickly.  
"Huh?" Kato noticed the strange behavior.  
"We actually cannot fill you in with all the details... You're kind of infected with a virus that feeds on your memories' worst emotions." Yada notified.  
"Oh... So it targets my past rage and regrets... Sounds like the ultimate weapon to use against me." Kato acknowledged.  
"That's the gist. And unfortunately, we can only keep you from suffering the immediate effects; we don't how to cure it yet." Miho mentioned.  
"I understand. Thanks for the pick-me-up." Kato bowed. "I'm guessing whoever did this to me is still out there, hm? Well let's thrash 'em and find out that cure." He suggested.  
"Oooo..." The agent pulled down Miho's hand and reacted.  
"What now?" Kato asked.  
"Yeah, thrashing everybody responsible is not going to be as easy as you think." Bellamy crossed his arms.  
"Can I ask 'why not' for that?" The Chairman suggested.  
And from there, the team briefly described the current situation, which included how Satoshi and Kazuhiro have gone rogue, and set up a black market arms deal with Kinesthesiz CEO Davids and genetics researcher Nakajima. Their latest exploit, which included sacking Tachyon Industries, saw them steal a device that could prove instrumental in preventing the illness that has befallen Kato from affecting anyone else. But the price was that he did end up contracting him...  
"Damn... Satoshi and my older cuz... I have to admit it's really hard to believe. But if it's coming from you all, it's equally difficult to see otherwise." Kato admitted.  
"Yeah it certainly wasn't an easy pill for us to swallow either." Miho agreed, looking down with conflict.  
"This needs closure. And I'm all but willing to see that through. I'm postulating that without my memories, this just got a whole lot harder, however." Kato rose up from the chair and faced everybody.  
"You can say that again too. For one thing, does this formula look familiar to you?" Kat presented the notebook Miho discarded earlier to him.  
"No, can't say that it does..." Kato took the pad into his hands. "But it doesn't seem excruciatingly hard to decipher. Give me a day; I could crack it in that time if you need me to." He assured.  
"That'd be good, but not enough. We still don't know yet where Satoshi and Davids plan on making the exchange. You stated earlier that you ahd an idea about that, but now that you cannot recall, we're stuck." Bellamy asserted.  
"Is there anything from the enemy that we happen to have? Private comm traces? Hard-disk copies?" Kato proposed options.  
"All useless; they weren't using those, most likely because they knew somebodies like us could crack it. I guess it commends us in some capacity that they had to be creative in channeling their information. Of course, they had insider help..." Miho replied.  
"The only thing I ended getting out of this was the phone that the Captain from earlier was using. He was getting anonymous tips that allowed TI to keep up with our raid. Of course, we know who the anonymous entity is, but the number is ghosted." Naoko spun the device in her hand.  
"Check the interactions of that phone between its owner and TI's CEO." Kato considered.  
"Uh, why?" The Agent questioned.  
"The head of security would not listen to any sort of random advice unless he got the okay to do so from a top brass. It's like the Ministry, right? Would they trust the directions of a Yakuza, or a Diet official more?" Kato analogized.  
"Ironic, coming from you. But I do see your point." The agent tossed the phone over to Kat to explore the storage.  
Within a few seconds, the Swede made some crucial discoveries. "The CEO seconded the demands of the tip. And showed this image as proof of legitimacy." She spun her laptop around to show a photograph of Kazuhiro, smiling and waving to the camera from the left side. Behind him was a showcase of the outside from a high floor, which consisted of a distant river, with the far side presenting a particular large building towering over the other edifices standing next to it.  
"This isn't any ordinary image, everybody, this is a clue. This is one of the ways they've sent their information around." Kato pointed at it.  
"Mind telling us how?" Naoko queried.  
"Davids trusts this photo; that's because it's the only one Kazuhiro and Satoshi sent him and Nakajima, as a means of clarifying their clients when they were originally slated to meet." Kato considered.  
"That makes sense... Satoshi seemed flustered in carrying the pilot who ambushed us before we reached the Amalfi Coast. He had anticipated we would be locked up at that point, didn't he?" Yada put her hand to her chin. "That meant having to meet there was awkward."  
"Okay, so we just need to find out where this is. Shouldn't take longer than a couple hours." Bellamy deduced.  
"'Find out?' You guys don't know where that is?" Kato was surprised by the implication.  
Everybody once more looked at him.  
"And you do?" Naoko crossed her arms.  
"Of course I do. That's the Millennium Tower!" Kato pointed at the notably-tall structure in the distance. "You know, the one built in just under two years and is the fourth-tallest thing in Vienna?" He described.  
"Vienna?" Kat repeated.  
"Well that's one of multiple places for Millennium Tower buildings! What's more, I can see that it is 171 meters tall, give or take the little centimeter, sits comfortably on the Danube River, which is obvious given its 300 meter width, and is surrounded many other upscale buildings completing the Millennium Center spread." Kato went on further. "And that's not even noting how the distance from window to that building is a cool 6,000 ft away. You know what's also 6,000 ft away from that landmark? A certain other landmark called the DC Towers!" The Chairman finished.  
_It's like he hasn't missed a step when it comes to being the center of attention in any room he's in._ Naoko bumped her elbow on Yada's shoulder.  
_Well, at least a few appreciate it._ The CFO acknowledged, noting how Miho's frown was starting to switch to some half-smile at her observations.  
"You're saying this is going to happen at DC Towers? What makes you believe that?" Yada stepped forward.  
"If what you say about this Nakajima fellow is correct, he's doing all he can to be the next, better me. Satoshi and my older cuz want him to prove that. This piecing-together would be one of the perfects tests of that. Believe me, if Nakajima is really that smart, he'll think of this too." Kato assured.  
"If you say so, Chairman, then we don't have reason to dispute. Now it's just a matter of knowing when to strike, for if we come too late, we naturally will miss it. But too early and they'll notice, call it off, and ghost themselves." Miho theorized.  
"Right... But we know the time to attack too." Kato crossed his arms triumphantly.  
Once more, everybody else was bollixed.  
"Come on, everybody! Look at the glass!" He waved to the right corner of the image.   
"Oh!" The CFO realized it. "There's a clock being reflected off from it!" She pointed out.  
"Uh-huh. And what's the brand name?" The Chairman, clearly enjoying himself again, rolling his wrist in a leading manner.  
"It's reversed..." Miho held her chin. "Fleur44." She made it out.  
"Gee, I wonder what floor this will be taking place on!" Kato obfuscated foolishness.  
"Alright, smartass, good work." Naoko nodded with a grin of grit.  
"So, a destination and a time. It's best to make haste now - we have to believe that the Kingslayers know that they've set us back with this HYM prototype and that they're ready to hand over a completed version of the virus to Satoshi and Nakajima. Therefore, the deal must be busted now." The former JGSDF asserted.  
"Yes ma'am!" Everyone shouted in unison.  
And so, the small team got everything they needed from the facility and their transports, and then headed towards yet another private airfield owned by the Kato Alliance. This time, Miho took the reins of piloting the aircraft, allowing Kato a rest after practically being risen from the dead only very recently. He certainly didn't seem to be complaining, taking up a bench just a couple leagues away from the cockpit of the private jet. He had fallen asleep during the three-hour ride to the music in his headphones, which included "Don't Belong" by Mari-San.   
Yada repeatedly gazed back from her copilot's seat to see him peacefully sleeping as he was. "..."  
"Worried for him, aren't you?" Miho rhetorically inquired.  
"Well, yeah... He still has that virus in him, after all. And this is just a band-aid when all's said and done; if this virus is to actually be quelled, we need the notes that only he can discover. But that's also been taken down a peg due to the nature of the affliction." Yada then repositioned herself properly on the chair. "But what's more, the amnesiacs that we have given him have caused the loss of much more than just his worst memories. He doesn't remember the past five years at all." She reiterated.  
"Mhmm..." Miho sounded her understanding.  
"What could've caused that to happen? Didn't you say it would only target the worst of the problems?" The CFO reminded.  
"I have two theories. The first is that the drug literally finds no difference in degree between all of Kato's most recent memories, so it is suppressing them all for his sake, which means the drug is working exactly as intended." The older Japanese lady stated.  
"And the other concept?" Yada pried.  
"The, and I believe this one much more than the former, drug has been sabotaged by Kato's own body. Remember that his enhanced condition means most chemicals don't make him react the same way as everyone else, if at all. His form's natural instinct to fight back against the foreign substance has caused a mutation, resulting in unpredictable symptoms. Symptoms such as psychogenically healed sense of time, and laser-like surgical amnesia." Miho stated calmly.  
"Oh..." The young lady took a moment to give that explanation more thought.  
"Don't let it keep you down, Yada. Because for as much as you think this is a scary matter, you would know that the only person that could be more frightened by these turn of events is Kato-ani himself." The Captain advised.  
"I know. Be strong, for his sake." Yada took a deep breath. "It kind of helps, how he is too." She smirked.  
"Yeah?" Miho stated.  
"There's such an energy in him. Like we haven't seen in so long. Perhaps overseas work has started to jade him?" She considered.  
"I could see that. But still, he has left behind his brevity at the door. And we know that used to be your peeve." Miho reminded.  
"Ugh, Miho!" Yada teasingly identified, to which the Captain snickered.  
"Nevertheless, we must not forget, for Kato-ani's sake. Not forget that at heart, both present Kato and five-years-before Kato are the same." She made sure to mention.  
"Yeah. I understand." Yada nodded.  
But someone who also understood that was Kato himself, who had pulled one muff of his headset off of the ear closer to the cockpit.  
After the airplane ride concludes and the team arrives in the formerly Celtic-Germanic lands, they collectively and immediately find one of their hotel safehouses. However, with the deal happening towards the beginning of sundown, the crew only has enough time for a quick rundown of how they plan on infiltrating the deal site, and a swift fresh-up in anticipation. Try as Kato might in between, however, but his incessant prying for information regarding the past four and a half years would be all for naught; everyone else remained very cautious not to discuss such matters, out of preoccupation that jogging his brain of them would probably reactivate the HYM Virus still attempting to latch onto those memories and kill him.   
With A few hours before the deal is theorized to begin, the Kato Alliance mobilizes toward its location, with Bellamy driving in a Jaguar F-Pace. When they do, they come across two identical structures.  
"Shit, I should've thought about this sooner!" Yada pounded on her forehead.  
"What? What?" Naoko requested confirmation.  
"These coordinates point to the DC Towers. They took so long to construct Tower 2, we never considered that it was actually finished! It could be fifty-fifty which building they're actually going to conduct the deal, as Kazuhiro's image has no way of showing where the other building is." Yada elaborated on her curse.  
"Hm, we can ill afford to mess that up." Miho shook her head. "We cannot use UAVs to look in advance; Satoshi most definitely told Nakajima and Davids to counteract them. And choosing wrong would surely bring us into the open from the other side." She evaluated.  
"Miho, as always, is correct. But like the floor issue, we don't have to take that risk." Kato peeked from the backseat to answer.  
"Oh here goes our boss again, using that Sherlock Scan to utterly decimate a situation with the simplest of clues." Kat noted.  
Kato smirked comically at the remark. "Show me the photo again." Yada brought it up to his face. "Take a look at the buildings down below. What do you see?" He inquired.  
"A very certain angle of sight?" Naoko snarked.  
"Indeed. An 89.3 degree angle, if we're going by tenths, as Yada has mentioned I should use to prevent dragging on." Kato revealed. As he continued to dole out how he got that result, which included snippets of him explaining the rolling arc distance of the Millennium Tower to one building in the spread he pointed to earlier, everybody else stared at Yada with slightly judging eyes. "... I then took a look at a photo from an executive for these towers when they reached the final floor and took a pic of the Millenium Tower, commemorating its near-completion. No matter where the man would stand, however, that precise angle is always at least .05 degrees off. If Nakajima is really my rival, he would pick up on this too." He concluded.  
"So... Tower number one?" Bellamy snarked.  
"Tower number one." Kato nodded with a smile.   
"Alright, let's set up." Naoko switched priorities.  
And so they did. Bellamy parked their getaway vehicle inside an alleyway across the Danube from the DC Towers, and went back to their hotel with Kat to take their untraceable van. The rest meanwhile donned navy coverall uniforms, and when the duo came back, they all went in to pose as window cleaners. Needless to say, it was no issue getting through security clearance for the towers, and their cover bought them some legitimate slow work. And time to talk while they worked.  
Yada, standing on the cleaning platform as she swiveled her industrial squeegee across a nigh-flawless silicon surface, couldn't help a few aside glances to something below her. "Tell me something, Kato." She initiated.  
"Yes?" Kato looked towards his chest, for he was cleaning the glass below while harnessed and upside-down.  
"If it's not too much trouble, could you tell me the last thing you remember from our time together? I know you said you recall a breakup about a month ago, but we did... Have some other interactions in that brief interval." She questioned.  
"Yada..." Miho called to remind her.  
"What? I meant I had to get him to unlock his suite(s) so that I could get some leftover stuff, and the like." She corrected any implications.  
"I believe the last time we personally spoke was when you told me about an accolade. For Akihisa. His first in-person concert experience since his long interval in the hospital due to his CAD-centered affliction. You spoke in voicemail of course, because at the time I was on comm silence, saying that after helping you to assure him four years, eight months, twelve days, six hours, and eighteen seconds ago, I should be told it hasn't gone to waste at all." He revealed.  
"Aha. I recall that vividly. Thanks for answering; I'm all set now." Yada dismissed the topic and continued with her work.  
"With all due respect, Yada, no you're not." Kato bounced back.  
"Pardon?" The CFO of KAM stopped dead in her tracks.  
"You too, Miho. I know that you're both hiding stuff from me, beyond the regret triggers, for my own good. It was not hard to figure out, after all; I can see that every time you both look in my eyes. And that is why I've been selective with my questioning of what I missed - why I asked if the West Coast Campaign we planned went well or not, rather than the details of who was involved or what we found after each raid. So, I have to be honest, I'm very frustrated with myself that you are looking at several years of powerful cogitations and emotions that I lack the capacity to reciprocate." Kato snickered for a second. "I guess that just goes to show how important memories are, huh?"  
"Great speech, Kato, but do you have a point?" Naoko, who was similarly on a harness, albeit hanging from the farther side, spoke.  
"Yada, Miho, can you be honest with yourselves? If not for me, then for the rest who rely on the best out of you?" The CEO inquired.  
Both ladies maintained copious amounts of silence before responding. "Sure, Kato. We'll be more considerate. Count on us." Miho stated.  
_Hypocrite._ Yada mouthed. The Captain noticed the silent judgement as well.  
Alas, the team continued with their menial labour for another hour and a half. After which, their cover was legitimized and they could move on with further setup on their operation, which included setting up rappel ropes on the roof that were independent of the scaffolding they were currently using. While the ladies dealt with such practical wire work and Naoko went back down to re-converge with Bellamy and Kat, Kato was focused on the air vents and his InReTs pad; it turns out that he was remotely controlling a small, toy-sized vehicle that stuck to the metal chute's ceiling. Using an adjoining layout of the building's interior, Kato was able to locate the shaft that led to the room they were going to break into. The droid then produced a thin arm and placed two little micromachine nodes on top of the shaft's screws. It then fired some more towards the far side of the room (lodging themselves into the rim of a lamp and a screw for the ceiling-fan switch before retreating the way it came, avoiding the CCTV of the vicinity.  
Time soon came, and the deal was set to commence.  
"Hope you all are ready; I hear a team opening and going through the door." Kat, from inside the working-front van, spoke as she manipulated the angles of the cameras already instilled within the building to get a better vantage point. She, along with the others watching their InReTs screens, could clearly see that it was Satoshi and Kazuhiro who were the first to arrive.  
Kato looked more than a little conflicted with the confirmation that two of the men closest to him were shown to him as such.   
"I heard the news at TI, Satoshi. A canister emptied in the vicinity of a discharged pulse gun while Kato and Yada were present." Kazuhiro noted. The conversation was audible for the crew since the nodes Kato planted were to set up a 3D soundwave architecture that allows them to hear the entirety of the room with ease.  
"Afraid for their lives are you? We cannot be having that, just so you know. Especially when Nakajima and Davids show up again." Satoshi turned his way suddenly. Though he still spoke with a flat tone, all mannerisms seemed to point to a very cold demeanor and delivery.  
Kazuhiro sighed with exasperation. "Not that. I just wonder what might happen with the Kingslayers now. Will they believe that the team is far too crippled to show up and cause shenanigans today? Or do you think they'll be even more prudent now that they have no way of knowing if Kato is dead or not?" Kazuhiro explained.  
"There's no cure for HYM, not even for the prototypes that the Kingslayers' moles at TI employed. Kato's mind is powerful, but even it wouldn't last more than a day with such aches." Satoshi assured. "As for how the Kingslayers will react, Nakajima's in charge, and with him constantly vying for Kato's number, I believe he's all in." He finished.  
"Well then great. We have our business then." Kazuhiro crossed his arms a little more confidently.  
"Heheh, the lot of them better get ready for a bloody rude awakening." Bellamy's own rising morale gave way for his Birmingham accent to leak out for a second. "Best begin rappelling, gentleman and ladies." He added on.  
"We're on it." Miho put on radio silence. "Let's do this."  
The four confirmed the fastening of their cables and began their bouncy descent. As they did, though, their communications nodes have picked up on new sounds within their deal site.  
"Nakajima. Suppose it's nice to see you again."  
"I bet it is." The young prodigy ushered, closing the door behind him with the rugged briefcase he was carrying, allowing only himself and his five-strong security within the room.  
Kazuhiro looked skeptical. "Uh, where's Mr. Davids?" He asked. The three infiltrators were at this point just hanging above the floor they were going to invade, prepping the cables for a large jumping pendulum.  
"Stayed behind." Nakajima answered.  
"Why is that, may I ask?" Kazuhiro questioned back.  
"Upon my request. Part of our plan to distribute the agent and showcase its devastation throughout the world, I made sure the rest of the product is getting onto custom-designed nerve rockets- Based off of your contracted WWII designs, thank you." The researcher added on.  
"Is that right?" Satoshi crossed his arms.  
"Half-right. The other half is... Well, can you expect Davids to not be overkill with prudence?" Nakajima reasoned.  
"You should've kept tabs on Tachyon. Full stop, Kato and Yada have been infected with one of your HYM prototypes." Satoshi reiterated.  
"Uh-huh... And that's exactly why they're hanging right outside out window as we speak." The Vice-Kingslayer took a few steps closer to the foundation that he just spoke of.


	10. Matter of Makeover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I quite honestly don't recall why I named this chapter the way I did, after relooking at it today. 
> 
> Anyways in this chapter, the DC Towers operation takes a very strange turn, and thus fights ensue on multiple fronts within its vicinity in Vienna. Can the Kingslayers and Saviors be stopped right here and now before the final card is revealed?

_Shit!_ Miho and Yada both cursed under their whispered breath, realizing that Nakajima knows that they are there.  
The Kingslayer's Vice-President proceeded to nod at one of his suited muscle, who copied the action and then produced a remote switch. When he pressed down on the protruding red jewel, the floor directly above it detonated a small set of explosives. The shockwaves produced as a result shatter the windows, and disrupt the once firmly-set rappel cables, causing all three of the infiltrators to plummet. They fortunately don't fall very far thanks to utilizing EM-Traverse with their AtTac suits, but this action also revealed themselves to both of the dealing parties.  
Both ex-Kato Alliance members and Kingslayers proceeded to unload their series of various firearms on the window, with just a few penetrating ballistics causing the silicon to give as well. The trio make sure to descend to just underneath the horizon of the floor to avoid the entirety of their carpet fire, until they all seemed to stop.  
All of them knew that did not necessarily mean it was safe to climb into the level, so Kato produced a cylindrical explosive from his back pocket and lobbed it over the corner. Both Satoshi and Kazuhiro understood what it was and attempted to shoot at it while putting on their shades, but it being hit by a bent .40 S&W hardly even dented it. Its explosion produces a flashbang effect followed by a heavy smoke cloud.  
Nakajima, who didn't quite get the memo, had only a back-turn and arm-cover to reduce its impact. But it still shook him quite aplenty. "Argh! Bet it was fun you didn't talk about this?!" He yelled more loudly and spitefully.  
"You're the only one who believed he'd be here, after all! You'd be the one to expect this most!" Kazuhiro retorted.   
"What-fucking-ever! Next time, make sure you make a harder clue!" The researcher demanded, before gesturing to his detail to urge them to help them take their leave early. However, the doors turn out to be magnetically-locked. "Shit! Security measures engaged!"  
_Good work, Jack!_ Yada complimented the hack.  
 _Nothing to it._ Kato responded. After they knew they would be covered, all three of them proceeded back up to the floor. But then Satoshi and Kazuhiro engaged their AtTac suits and activated their goggles' faculties. Kato and the ladies got behind cover at Miho's request before they could be located. _Didn't you say they couldn't highlight our frames due to a flag change on the life-form detector, Miho?_ He questioned.  
_It wasn't a perfect fix yet; I can negate the highlight, but they will still see a silhouette on account of being unable to disable the perceptions of our suits' camo features. Basically, if we were behind the smoke, they could see a black shape, and discern it to be you._ The Captain explained.  
_Hardly a fix..._ Yada remarked.  
_It's okay; we're in ambush mode still. If we can-_ Kato's silent comms got interrupted.  
"We burned through the electromagnet, sir!" One of the suits observed as he nearly completed his blowtorch blasting of the handle area.  
"Very good! Satoshi, you have a few of my men with you; do not think of leaving here without being sure of Kato's death this time if you still want to unleash a wiser world with your own hands!" Nakajima asserted before Sparta-kicking the door clean open with one of his colleagues and retreated.  
_We cannot let them leave! We won't know where they will be unleashing the bioweapon if they do!_ Miho urgently reminded.  
_Then we have to get after them. And get through our former allies._ Kato reasoned. He slid between cover to find one Kingslayer about to pass by the door sill and incapacitated him with a Shock-Pad to his neck.  
_Swordmaiden, go down from the outside and wait for him at the entrance! I'll try and follow him down the inside!_ Yada dictated.  
_If that's how you want to play it, Queen!_ Miho acknowledged, sprinting back to the building opening, hook-punching a passing Kingslayer in the meantime, and then sliding down to the perpendicular curtain surface.  
Yada snuck behind another grunt just before the smoke began dying down, quickly pivoting around him to thrust her left hand into his mouth, electrocuting him without the risk of him crying out at the same time. _I'm going for the door, Kato!_ Yada confirmed, jogging towards the threshold.  
_Yada, wait! Satoshi or another might have it bottlenecked!_ The Chairman cautioned.  
 _We cannot wait anymore now!_ The CFO reasoned as she was almost at the broken door.   
"Hold it right there, Yada." Kazuhiro revealed himself just at the other side. "Can't let you be dealign with-"  
Yada didn't let him finish, instead punching him in the gut, embedding one hook of a Wire Wrest into the torso and firing it into the nearby wall, locking him in position there. She then gave him a back elbow to the mask to briefly put him down for the count before attempting her advance.  
"Hold on a minute, Yada. I got some extra-special rounds in this gun here; your armor won't help too much with it." Satoshi bounced out of cover and spoke.  
_Shit..._ Yada knew she had no chance of turning her aim on the former JASDF soldier at this point. _Kato...  
Almost there. Just wait a moment._ He responded.  
"I'm surprised you actually made it here in one perfect piece, all things at TI considered." The ex-KAM member commented, going just slightly closer to the fray, though not close enough for Yada to capitalize.  
_Ready._ Kato then charged in, with both pistols loaded with similar ammunition.  
Satoshi heard Kato's intentionally audible footsteps and redirected aim, allowing Yada to proceed.  
  
-JUDGMENT OST "Penumbra" plays.-  
  


# 加藤和彦VS土屋敏

## Kazuhiko Kato; Chairman of the Kato Alliance

## VS

## Satoshi Tsuchiya; Ex-Captain of the Kato Alliance

  
Satoshi lines up his shot just before Kato could close the distance. Kato retains his miraculous reaction times, however, bobbing his head just to the right so that the propelled round flew past him. This also allowed him to easily transition to his intended next action - a schoolboy roll-up. Satoshi is forced to roll-back a small distance... Just enough for the both of them to take shots when they are both standing again. To counteract this, they both participate in a rounding sequence, with both trying to tap their opponent at their feet with a leading burst.   
The circling persists for all of two seconds, when Kato proceeds to backflip, avoiding the line of fire entirely. Satoshi doesn't realize the movements until a half-second later, which at that point meant he would end up behind Kato. While in mid-air, the latter fired a bead from his left hand, which would have pierced the former JASDF's eye had it not been for him stopping dead in his tracks so that some temple hair-strands took its place instead. Upon landing, the Chairman then turns the other way for a backhand shot. The Ex-Captain anticipates it and charges in, blocking the shooting forearm with his own so that it cannot fully straighten the elbow.  
Believing Kato would hesitate from the stunted movement, he then pivoted his radius so that he could align his shot. But Kato was anything but halted, swiftly twisting his arm over Satoshi and then falls back the other way, causing an arm drag that again tosses the larger Japanese man across the open area of the conference room.  
After he finished rolling across the ground, Satoshi tries to use the forced distance to again line up his shot, but Kato kicks the barrel away from his centerline as he quickly closed the distance. Kato's right arm then winded in towards a lock-on, which Satoshi capitalized on, ducking his head and pushing with his free hand to have his several shots fly over him. The former JASDF then tried for an uppercut-like motion to uncurl his shooting arm at Kato's head, but a well-timed block using Kato's returning right forearm prevented that, so the multiple rounds discharged at the ceiling.  
Meanwhile, Yada raced down the spiraling staircase after realizing that Nakajima had disabled the other elevators and rigged the one he's descending down with far too many traps to drop down after it. As such, she sprints down the stairs. But after going down a few leagues, she hears the commotion of many other Kingslayers clambering up the same spiral. Knowing she won't get through without causing some chaos herself, she activates both Octo-Ink and EM-Traverse, and waits at the underbelly of the above staircase as the first squad of four troopers advances past her. She immediately dives in with a double-knee strike to the closest's back. Their surprise opens the next two up for Shock-Out rounds, then a projectile Shock-Pad to the last one. Their slumps alarm the next batch, so she jumps off the close rail to jettison herself into a tornado arm drag into the wall for the first person crossing the first point. She sees his cohort just a step behind, so she quickly transitions into a hammerlock human shield on her first target to prevent the second from taking aim.  
After a few seconds with reinforcements amassing on the lower staircase, Yada then throws a round projectile in a high arc that sticks to the ceiling. All of the Kinglsayers look up at it, believing it to be an explosive, though the most observant realize it is just some disarmed plastic explosive. Yada uses this diversion to release the guard into a violent, Ballistic-Shield-aided tackle that sends him crashing into all of them, with all of the bodies tumbling down the staircase.  
Returning to the conference room, Satoshi sees Kato's right ribcage exposed due to the block and hooks it, weakening Kato's block. The former then pushed down on his wrist to force a locked elbow so that the handgun's barrel points at Kato's forehead. The latter counters this by twisting the point of his right elbow to his far side, so that now the next bullet out of Satoshi's machine pistol went into the far wall. This motion also set up Kato's chance with his left Kimber, with the help of a shoulder check to provide distance, with it ending up parallel behind his twisted back and pointed at Satoshi's torso. But as the latter was being pushed back, he also lifted up his foot into a roundhouse kick. The tip of his boot managed to divert the barrel just in time, and so the bullet harmlessly lodged into the wall behind him.  
The spinning momentum also allows Satoshi to fall back into a three-point and tactical hip-fire stance. But Kato was no longer right in front of him, as his peripherals showed him to be flanking from the front. Subsequently, Satoshi sweeps the machine pistol horizontally, but failing to get him before he sees Kato aim up at his foot with his right hand, urging him to spend time rising up. The Chairman persisted in advancing closer and straightened out his left arm at the same time. The Ex-Captain manages to float his free hand above the extension and pushing it down and away from him, succeeding the motion by raising his gun hand above the block. Kato came into the threat this time, tilting his head to the threat's right while also clinching it with his right, perhaps to set up an armlock shot while allowing his enemy's pistol to fire past his ear.  
Fortunately for Satoshi, he manages to get his free hand up there to keep it from angling just right to target his neck. He then quickly presses down on the load button, causing the magazine to slide out and fall into the ground. Kato then opts instead to push Satoshi's arm up again; this time, however, to fully reveal his ribcage so that he can elbow-smash it. With the former JASDF reeling, Kato dropped his unloaded right gun so that it could take his left, and then used his now free hand to lock a three-quarters facelock, rolling forward to complete a parallel snapmare. When they both end up seated and aside each other, Kato then follows it up with a left back elbow swing to Satoshi's chest, putting him supine and allowing him to twist over into the mount. But the Ex-Captain was sharp about this transition and kept his knees tucked so that he can easily pry him off and push him back to an incomplete full guard.  
Satoshi's other leg prevented Kato from angling his arm so that he can open fire on the former's fallen body. When Kato uses both arms to swat aside the feet, Satoshi uses its momentum to spin around and shoot up in the meantime, but Kato bobbed his head and regained control of the arm to have it shoot away from him once more. The former JASDF is inclined to do the same, clutching Kato's gun hand and locking it on top of his shoulder, continuing to eliminate its advantage. The Chairman decides to end the stalemate by deadlifting Satoshi up in a modified belly-to-belly. The latter rejects this by releasing the leg guard so he falls back to regular standing. The surprise also opens up a hip toss for him; a back-up following this would have sealed a victory for Satoshi at that point.  
But Kato immediately went perpendicular to Satoshi upon landing and barrel-rolled until he was within leg-grabbing range. When he did clutch an ankle, Kato then rolled back the way he came, causing Satoshi to trip over his body and fall prone. They both rose back to their knees as fast as they could to take aim, but Satoshi sacrificed some time to hook kick Kato's aim off before setting up his own. Kato spins through the impact as he went back to avoid the volley, and hook kick Satoshi's barrel out of the way too during the barrel-roll. The motion ended with Kato falling onto his back now, which stabilized his aim well enough... If it wasn't for Satoshi diving in to push the arms away; the impact also caused the pistol to slide away. Kato rolls through the impact so that they both end up on their knees in a clinch again.   
Meanwhile in the spiral staircase, Yada has set up a Pivoting Wire Wrest that lined across the square area. She shooting-star pressed so that her legs caught the cable and so she hung upside down and bandit-sweeped her Hudson H9 at the six in view. Once they were all incapacitated, she holstered the handgun and uncrossed her knees, allowing herself to drop through the narrow section towards the bottom floor. She had prepped some micro-machines in between her fingers in the meantime, and scattered them into the first two levels that she fell down. These nodes proved to be the generators for Stun-Nets, which activated after being planted into the walls, knocking out all on those sections. Yada's HUD eventually revealed she was just a few seconds from the bottom, so she activated her Vaccuum Carry to anchor herself to the railing of the third level and stop her momentum. From there, she could deactivate and follow it with a wall jump to the second level and then a sheer, safe drop down to ground level to continue the chase.  
Back in the busted deal area, Kato begins overpowering Satoshi in the test of strength, and when the latter realized this, he used the brachial gap to headbutt Kato on his cheek. But that only seemed to irritate the Chairman, who reacted in kind to Satoshi's nose, which caused a small blood trail to flow down an opening. It also briefly loosened Satoshi's grip, making him fall back and provide distance for a standing Kato, but it was quickly reinstated when Satoshi used his free hand to catch the exposed wrist once more, and pull Kato instead into his front chancery hold that was to be followed with a 12-6 elbow and knee-lift pincer attack. The CEO kept his arms up to block the knee, but felt the full brunt of the downwards joint strike. Satoshi released the makeshift headlock just so he can then raise an opposite-side elbow and then a shoulder check with the same limb to give himself space to make his shot. And it would've been so, were Kato not such a quick learner either.  
Once a gap was being established, Kato pulled in Satoshi for a rolling cross armbreaker which interrupted his aim and put him in a very compromising situation for both his weapon (a simple disarm) and limb (an elbow dislocation). Fortunately, Satoshi was able to get his free arm underneath the legscissor and push off, prompting Kato to roll back into yet another kneeling stance before being able to do either. The former JASDF urgently got his arm back to his side and advanced forward with it to ensure accuracy. But Kato spun the other way of the arm allowing his right to catch it in a front chancery for the wrist. Kato then struck with an open palm strike to the chin to stun Satoshi and make him compliant for a disarm of his CZ Shadow III. Satoshi recognized its loss and gave an uppercut to swiftly disrupt Kato's line (also bringing him to standing) long enough to initiate a back-roll behind Kato, who tried to lead an extended shooting volley after him.  
The evasion bought Satoshi enough time to get onto his feet as well and block the arm into a bend to the side. With a few low kicks and stomps, Satoshi slowly got the barrel to begin turning the other way while still in his grip. Kato rejected it at the last moment by letting go of the CZ, prompting Satoshi to catch it out of instinct. With this diverted attention, Kato proceeded to twist the gun hand back the other way, and into a standing Anaconda Vice, while also pulling down the trigger to fire behind Satoshi. The latter ended the submission by hoisting Kato into a cradle lift and then pulling his far arm above his head, causing him to lose his grip of the clinch and fall back, landing on his nape on the ground. Satoshi stepped away just enough and repositioned his aim, and Kato got onto his elbows just in time to see it...  
When Yada burst out of the staircase entrance, she sees the open doorway of the elevator, realizing that Nakajima had already gotten out and moved into the lobby. She first booby traps the entrance in case anybody still on the staircase and sprints her way towards the concierge area, until a microwave explosive rolls into view. _Shit!_ Yada's eyes widened behind her mask, realizing that it was too late to avoid the loss of her KAM Suit's functionalities in the middle of the open. She quickly spins behind desk cover after disabling the two closest with quick Shock-Out shots, barely avoiding the massive bulletstorm that flies above her horizon.  
Miho has finally gotten down the outside of the building and sees Nakajima and his skeleton crew mobilizing into their modified SUVs parked outside the DC Towers. _Queen! They're about to hightail it out of here in some souped-up Jaguars!_ The Captain notified on comms.  
_Go and stop them! I'll catch up in a bit!_ Yada spoke back. A few bullets whisking above her again also made it through the microphone.  
_Are you in a gunfight?_ Miho discerned. She used her goggle faculty to look into the building and see one woman standing against roughly twenty heavier-armed men... And no KAM outline over her body.  
_Yeah; nothing I can't handle though. Go on!_ She reassured, peeking out from the side of cover to kneecap two others.  
Miho bit her lip, realizing she has to come to a cruel decision, until...  
_Not to worry, Queen and Swordmaiden! Legion's got this covered!_ Naoko reminded them of Bellamy, Kat, and herself's presence in the area. She was also loading up a special rifle, resembling a Kel-Tec RFB Carbine.  
_Step on it, Rook!_ Kat inside the back area of the van, called out to Bellamy, the driver.  
_On top of it!_ Bellamy noted, pressing down on the gas pedal just enough to avoid wheelspin and chase after the SUVs immediately.  
_Very good! Glad you guys are here!_ Miho confirmed, and then rushed into the lobby, immediately pivoting the back of one Kingslayer and then superkicking him into two directly in front of him. She immediately turned around pelted five others springing out of cover with Shock-Out Rounds from her TDI Kard. Yada sees some of her enemies twisting around, realizing that the Kurenai Yadeshiko has violently disrupted their formation. Having shown their backs to her, Yada snipes them down. Seeing someone who hasn't let the confusion get to him start advancing on her location, Yada slides across the her banister cover in anticipation for him to reach the top of the small staircase. She first knocks aside his Scorpion EVO 3's barrel away from her and then hoisted herself up onto his shoulders for a reverse hurricanrana that smashed his cranium onto the steps he had just crossed. Yada then rolled forward with his head still in between her legs and lied supine so that his body served as minor cover for the others nearby, allowing her to easily line up more Hudson Shock-Out rounds on them. She eventually had to reload however, but while she did so, one sneakier Kingslayer was hiding behind a close pillar, coming out to take a shot at her compromised position...  
Click click.  
Satoshi looked at the side of his handgun's slide, which was locked back, implying its empty status. The revelation was not lost on Kato either, who then kicked at Satoshi's left shin and then whipped his right leg in between Satoshi's two and then pressing down on Satoshi's popliteal area, prompting him again into a prone position. Throwing his left leg over completes the legscissors and allows Kato free reign for an ankle lock that leaves Satoshi screaming in pain.  
After whipping his head back for the second time, the former JASDF saw the still-loaded Kimber that was lost earlier. Knowing that Kato was too busy locking in the submission as much as possible, Satoshi crawled his way towards the firearm, coming within finger's reach of it. But before it could be firmly gripped by him, Kato then rolled vertically cross Satoshi's back, with his foot landing on top of his nape. Kato rose up and stomped down twice, sandwiching Satoshi's face with the floor, before rolling again to claim the gun for himself. The distance made as a result made it impossible for the rattled Satoshi to counterattack at this point.  
Meanwhile, it is found that Yada remained on top of it with a backhand-toss of a Shock-Pad hitting the gunman in the forehead. Miho meanwhile kept most of the heat on herself, with a scatterplot of unconscious Kingslayers all around her. The finish came when Miho (with Yada's assistance) set up an entire line of remaining hostiles, where she promptly charged into them all and set up a significantly-stacked fireman's carry and proceeded to airplane spin them into a disgustingly-dizzied state. When she set them back down, all of them could hardly stay on their feet, allowing the ladies to pick them off one by one; Miho dealt with her batch with a vicious penalty kick, knee lift, and a flying backhand elbow. Yada subjugated her set first with a plant vase smash, a Rollins Curb Stomp, and finally a jumping 12-6 elbow to the crown.   
  
-OST ends.-  
  
Despite Bellamy's best efforts, Nakajima's rigged path consisting of miscellaneously-thrown explosives, tampered light and electrical poles, and of course, bullets, prevented the van team from getting too close.  
Naoko, who has now stuck herself to the top of the van, had to throw her Ballistic Shield above her vase to deflect several rounds of gunfire. She then fired one shot into the SUV herself. _Come on, Steward! Tell me that worked!_ She communicated.  
_Nah, just missed the mark! One more time Knight, please!_ Kat informed.  
_Shoot..._ Naoko almost cursed, before taking aim again.  
But before the agent could line up another shot, the SUV crew then split the roots of two matching electrical poles they were about to pass, causing them both to fall onto the road and cross, making it impossible for the KAM van to barrel through.  
_Bloody Hell!_ Bellamy was forced to handbrake and drift to a stop just before colliding with the property damage.  
Naoko used the inertia of the action to propel herself forward, and situate herself on top of a lightpole just ahead, concentrating on one last shot that perfectly penetrated the SUV's back bumper before it cut a corner and disappeared. _Steward, if that one didn't work, we're screwed.  
Don't lose sleep then, because we got 'em right where it hurts most._ Kat gazed satisfyingly at her laptop screen.  
"That's enough, Satoshi." Kato rose to a standing position after holding his aim from three-point for some time. His gestures prompted Satoshi, with his hands up, to do the same.  
"You were my Boss for a long time for a reason." Satoshi shook his head of the cobwebs while complying to the demands. "But I can't help but feel as though something's not right." He established.  
"Yeah. You're on the wrong side of the line in the sand." Kato snarked.  
"Not quite. Do tell me, do you know why I'm here and you're there?" Satoshi bounced back.  
Suddenly, the Chairman's eyes widened. And Satoshi saw it.  
"Ah... So that's how you survived the HYM Virus to this point." Satoshi revealed his comprehension of the situation.  
"Believe me, Satoshi, I may have an affliction in me, but it's Nakajima and Davids who are really diseased. And you mustn't do business with them." Kato attempted to reason.  
"You left me with no choice, Kazuhiko! And you didn't for your uncle and cousin either! And that's why I'm not leaving you any choice. Right now." The turncoat asserted.  
"I'm not killing you, no matter what, Satoshi. Been there, done that, never again. But that doesn't mean I cannot put you in max-sec until we deal with Davids." The Chairman paced back with the pistol still trained.  
"Not what I meant, Kato." He shook his head. "There's not really a way you could forget about August 10th, could you?"  
"August... Tenth?" A perplexed Kato repeated. His pupils dilated after processing the information and he clutched his head again in great pain. "AGHH!!" He screamed, relinquishing his aim.  
Satoshi tossed him into the far side of the room and then dived out of the opening the trio used to get in, deploying a wingsuit to finally escape the DC Towers vicinity.  
Bellamy pulls over the van on a quiet night street, with Naoko cartwheeling off of the top of the van and putting the Carbine behind her in zero-point stasis. "Status check. How is everybody now?"  
"Queen and Swordmaiden are good. We're just waiting on King." Yada responded.  
"King? What, is he still up there?" Naoko questioned.  
"Right now. We know he's not-" Miho answered, but was then interrupted when he finally showed up in the lobby.  
Kato could be seen by the both of them clutching his forehead, but he attempted to shake it off once he noticed them. "Hey there, girls." He greeted as happily as he could given the situation.  
But the both of them were too shocked to answer back.  
"Um, Queen? Swordmaiden? What's up?" He seemed perplexed.  
"Ka-uh, King... Your eyes." Miho pointed out.  
"My eyes?" The Chairman proceeded to feel their lower lids, finding trails of blood coming from them. "What th-?"


	11. Emotionless Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Vienna was a bust, the KAM team has to move on. But before they can do that... Poor Kato.
> 
> Not that you're going to say that for much longer. If at all.

\- Forty minutes later...-

"So? Do we know what's the damage?" Yada questioned.  
"The Chairman seems to have suffered a form of relapse. Actually, only the prelude of one." Miho answered.  
"Prelude? There's more?" Naoko worriedly asked.  
"I'm afraid so. Satoshi triggering the dormant memories by having Kato think about what happened on August tenth has also caused the emotions he felt from them to return. With a vengeance it seems." Kat elaborated.  
"Then why am I not dealing with such intense suffering right now?" The Chairman inquired through two coughs.  
"It seems this is because you only have fragments of your memories of that event, which explains why it only hurt you a bit when you heard that. But your mind is still very powerful, Kato, and it's likely it wants to remember. That's most likely why your condition is worsening." The Swede continued on to respond.  
"Do we pump him with more amnesiac to counteract that?" Bellamy wondered.  
"I would suggest that, but we cannot afford Kato forgetting more than what he already doesn't recall. This is a very critical phase in our operation." Kat advised against that notion.  
"Then what do we do?" Miho put her hand to her chin. She then remembers something. "I hoped we didn't have to do this..."  
"Miho-san? What are you thinking?" Yada leaned forward in anticipation.  
"We had a backup for this scenario if amnesia wasn't enough to slow the virus. Rather than sever his recollection, we plan on severing his reaction." The de-facto leader announced to the younger ladies.  
"So... Apathy drugs?" Naoko identified.  
Kat pulled out a filled, colorless vial and an empty needle. "Correct. We can inject Kato with an advanced, modified form of ketamine to induce an indifferent behavior, while keeping the rest of his cognitive abilities intact."  
"But if that happens, would he still want to work through our plan? A purely logical being, as you describe he would be, would probably think beyond the box and say to Hell with risking his neck on this." The Agent postulated.  
"Even if so... It's either that or dead for Kato." Miho looked away painfully.  
"Maybe we should ask the subject what we should do, hm?" Yada considered. After a bit, they all look towards him.  
Kato regretfully holds his lower face, knowing that he's the source of everyone else's issues at the current moment. "I guess I never knew how much I really wanted to live. But... Not if I have to live like that forever." Kato described. "Kat, hit me." He decided.  
"Yes, boss." The Swede prepared the needle, and then stabs it into the man's neck. The latter spazzes just a bit, while remaining seated on the raised island, before pulling the syringe out and tossing it into the ground.  
"Kato-ani?" Miho looked towards his bowed eyes.  
This time, Kato did not turn to curiously look at them, instead proceeding to jump off the makeshift bed and proceeding towards Kat. "Nylen, what of the radiation-activated trackers you have fired into Nakajima's vehicle?" He flatly, swiftly queried to her.  
"The trackers; yes, well, a few managed to embed into their SUV, and just as we had predicted from when they caused such a mess here, they took it with them onto the cover of a delivery truck, which then went onto a cargo plane out of the country. But that was only the first EM-blimp; not the kind of radiation we have hoped to see at this point." Kat answered.  
"That's fine. I shall follow them right now." Kato wiped away any remaining blood coming from his now-clear-white eyes and salvaged any supplies before heading towards the door.  
"Wait, Kato!" Naoko stood in his way, only to be nudged aside by him. "Hey!"  
"I'm not waiting, so if you're coming with, you will follow me to the private airfield." Kato asserted, before finally leaving the room, much to everyone's initial shock.  
Kato ultimately took his own vehicle (a Lexus LC from the depot), leaving the crew to trail in an Audi e-tron. Minutes later, Kato went to pilot a private jet, which his Alliance and other colleagues barely managed to get in before taking off. But much chagrin failed to faze him at all for the seemingly deliberate callousness.  
"Nylen, is this still heading the right way?" Kato spoke without looking away from the windshield.  
"Yeah. We're just ninety kilometers behind them." She replied, while looking at her tablet to confirm.  
"Very well." Kato concluded the proceedings.  
The rest of the crew sat together in the primary passenger area, looking through the open doorway to the cockpit at the two of them.  
"Not really the big ball of energy he was when he was forgetful, was he?" The Brit remarked.  
"Straight to the point at least." Naoko remained optimistic.  
"To a fault." Yada added on.  
"Yada-san..." Miho advised patience of the younger individual.  
"I know. This was inevitable. And I guess this is just what we need at this critical time. But I concur with him pre-dose; I don't want him to live forever like this. It will be a big insult to his memory." The CFO proclaimed.  
"Indeed..." Everyone more or less agreed.  
"That sounds incredibly detrimental." Kato spoke while making a tight turn upon seeing an elevated cliff to evade, causing some to nearly fall out of their chairs in the meantime.  
"Dick." Naoko cursed. "Wouldn't be surprised if he still thinks himself funny with that."   
"I do not. I am merely attempting to dissuade such thoughts, using irritable compliance." Kato confirmed.  
_Kato... Could you possibly still be afraid underneath all of that?_ Yada wondered silently.  
The hours-long trip ended for both parties... In Dresden, Germany. Naturally, the team had to descend in an opposite airfield to not give themselves away, during which they continued to rely on the irradiated trackers in the SUV to guide them. This paid off extremely well, as Nakajima and his Kingslayers continued to move through the delivery truck housing the bugged vehicle none the wiser, and eventually, a certain type of radiation flipped its switch.  
"Got it, boss!" Kat triumphantly held up her tablet. "Radio emissions crossed with laser and infrared. They went to a missile factory, just as we knew they would after accepting to the Vienna deal." She stated.  
"Now they plan on loading the HYM Virus onto those missiles to ease its mass deployment across any and all citywide populations!" Naoko figured.  
"No shit." Kato snarked, taking a right turn.  
"No shit is right. Just like how we have got to stop them from distributing these missiles tonight." Yada reminded everyone.  
"Not to worry; there still hasn't been a place Kato hasn't helped us break into." Bellamy remarked.  
"We won't have time for our usual hotel reconnaissance; those of you in the back should be researching about the factory's layout and security details now." The Chairman ordered.  
"At once, boss." Miho complied, pulling out her laptop to do so.   
"How do we plan on getting in? Still crutching on stealth?" The Agent questioned, pushing many Shock-Out rounds into dozens of different rifle magazines in the furthest back of the vehicle.  
"They know we'll be coming sooner or later. Let's go loud this time. Unwind some stress from earlier losses too; kill two birds one stone." Yada asserted, running analysis through a mini-projection from her ViTAL device.  
"That... Actually is sound. I'm sure it will be something Nakajima wouldn't expect either." Kato hesitated to state.  
"Is that so? Well, glad you like it." The CFO dryly responded.  
"If we're working around a raid style attack, I think we should first strike at 'em hard. Show 'em what British Strong Style is." Bellamy noted.  
"Eheheh, British Strong Style?" Kat looked back with bewilderment.  
"Oh, I guess you need a demonstration too." The former SAS noticed.  
An hour later, there was the arms factory, situated in the middle of the industrial district of Dresden. Within the confines of the reinforced brick walls, workers were transporting chemical-payload missiles that filled plastic-protection cases in preparation to be pushed into delivery trucks heading towards the docking bay. The design of the rockets heavily resembled the M55 rockets developed by the United States back during the 1950s, which were made to carry payloads of Sarin and/or VX poison gas. Quite clearly, part of the deal included Satoshi and Kazuhiro pulling a royalty-free contract that the Kato Family once had with NATO and the UN to acquire the obsolete design and make it according to their own image... So that it can be repurposed for the HYM Virus.   
"Pedal to the metal, everyone! Davids wants a thousand of these ballistics in KS depots by the end of tonight!" An alleged manager spoke into the building microphone before turning his attention to two other laborers with clipboards and binders full of information to relay. Meanwhile, other workers could be seen inserting guidance chips with intensely surgical precision before other crewmembers replaced the domes on the completed ones and manually folded down their back fins.  
But in the middle of the process, the ground suddenly rumbled, seemingly from underneath them, which caused one technician to accidentally solder into a major chip on the breadboard. "Ah, didn't they say testing of the rockets in the basement was over?" He angrily questioned, slamming his burning tool onto the metal desk.  
"They did. There's no way it was them." Another laborer lifted up his welding face shield and looked around.  
"Everyone! We're under attack!" A security guard yelled out as he ran into the area.   
"The Hell? Who's striking?" The manager stepped out of his rectangular office and hollered over the above railing.  
"Who do you think?!" The sentinel bounced back.  
"Well where are they?!" The superior added on.  
"We don't know! A truck with our colors ran way too fast into its loading dock, and busted down the two South gates while doing so! We can't get our equipment through there now!" The guard elaborated.  
"They knew this was our first depot? No way! Okay, keep them at bay once you find them! We're going to call in choppers!" The one above mentioned. But before he could run through all eleven digits, the power to the entire factory cut out. "What?!"  
Backup power came on seconds later, though it was only for a pattern of lights and outlets connected to the medical equipment and other essential information. The manager even attempting to call again and email found that the servers and call lines were cut. Or rather, blown apart, because another truck ran right into it.   
By this point, multiple dozens of guards, armed with unchipped AK-15s have taken point, investigating the targeted regions as well as scoping out the rest of the outside.  
"Look there! Another one!" One watchman noticed a truck coming at full speed towards the facility.  
"Step aside!" A Kingslayer demanded, bringing his heavily-modified grenade launcher, which strongly-resembled a certain MCU character's disk launcher, into the fray. He took aim at the vehicle's front and fired, causing the frisbee-like projectile to skirt along the ground until it detected the Electric Motor, and latched onto it. A second later, its detonation caused the large vehicle to tip to one side too much and skate to a brutal stop into a reinforced light pole.   
Some went to investigate the driver area of the truck, only to once more find no one there, despite the suspicious red flickering in the centerpiece. "No one in the vehicle!" The point man observed.  
"Where can those bastards be?!" Another called out.  
"Stay along the streets and make sure there's no other of our trucks trying to get in. The ones that we do own, notify them not to come near here!" A de-facto leader prioritized.  
  
-JUDGMENT's OST "Destination" plays.-

# 加藤アライアンスVSキングスレイヤーズ

## The Kato Alliance

## VS

## The Kingslayers

  
Roughly eight individuals went to line the curbs leading to their factory... Which the KAM Team, Octo-Inked to the reinforced brick perimeter walls, saw with glee. They all sprang out of cover and incapacitated them in their own ways; Miho and Kato both took an extra person to account for their outnumbering of six. Pulling them behind the walls to conceal them from the rest of security, Bellamy then used his InReTs to call in one more RC truck, which was much beefier and armored than the previous ones. The guards that were still investigating the inside area did notice the vehicle before long, but could not stop it from entering an alternate lot entrance. Its chassis then opened up to reveal an impressive number of nozzles that fired focused concussion blasts, which sent all guards into far walls, and any vehicles in the way onto their roofs.  
_That's British Strong Style, everyone!_ Bellamy formed a pumped fist.  
_You know, I got to research BSS just before coming here, and if you plan on trademarking it, I think you're going to be hearing words from wrestlers named Bates, Dunn, and Stevens._ Kat informed him.  
_Enough talk. This factory must be purged._ Kato asserted, vaulting over the tall wall to begin the advance. Everyone else followed.   
They transitioned, War Sport LVOA rifles in hand, to the walls parallel to the only convenient deployment gate left. Miho gave Bellamy the signal, and he proceeded to put the aforementioned APC into max gear and slam right into it.  
The guards lining the walls and other cover spots on the other side of the door naturally repulsed when something other than the infiltrators interjected itself, leaving them unprepared for when they did arrive, pelting them off like a 4D shooting gallery. The cohesiveness of the unit, knowing when to enter cover and when focus fire on not just hostiles, but other special targets like generators and explosive tanks, made them seem like almost a hive-mind between the six of them (though Kato had a tendency to stun-steal from Yada and Naoko in the meantime, much to their chagrin).  
The Kingslayers in the next hall hardly fared much better, especially when Miho began manhandling the men once more, using some as battering rams or full-body shields. Naoko and Yada worked in quite effective tandem too, with the former oftentimes stealing the Kingslayers' firearms in takedown disarms, while the latter often attached suspension hooks to them while compromised. Kat and Bellamy had moments to shine too, such as when she blocked a hip-fire shot from one directly in front of her, double-tapped a sniper behind him, and then pulled him behind her for an offhanded mule kick to his nape. The former SAS used the stock of his rifle as an improvised tonfa which brought one unsuspecting soldier to the ground prone, susceptible to a powerful stomp on the brain stem. He also tossed the empty firearm into another's arms, opening them up to a rolling elbow.  
Kato maintained a more obviously-tactical approach to singles combat, getting into CQC territory to eliminate most suppressive fire advantage, and drilling each point man twice before pushing them to the side, and constricting up to five soldier's arms between him and pistoling them all one by one. He also put one unfortunate soldier into a rifle-assisted standing Waki Gatame, which grounded his aim to snipe out several others before Kato twisted the rifle too far one way, causing the shoulder to dislocate.  
_Don't forget to disarm the rockets and destroy their chips!_ Miho reminded, while she pried one missile's dome out to bend a chip from its position. Kat had to use a slim jim to get into the build, and shot at the protruding half of the chip to destroy it. Bellamy stomped one into view and followed it with another to wreck it entirely.  
_Kat, be sure to tell us if the LAN spreads, and grant me authority when it does._ Kato ordered, still taking the front lines.   
From the vehicle depot, a military jeep with a roof-mounted M134 minigun appeared, spawning another two of the same variety and opening fire on the six KAM warriors. While its barrage trifecta of nigh-infinite 7.62-NATO ammunition initially shook two-thirds of them, Kato and Miho mobilized to quickly disable them via several Wire Wrests and some leverage with the machines lying around to bring the roof down on all of them.  
  
-OST ends.-  
  
_Showed them, I suppose._ The Swede communicated.  
_Our HUDs seem to indicate there's no more bad guys, let alone laborers, here still active._ Naoko scanned their surroundings. _Looks like, ahem, 'British Strong Style' really did the trick._ She concluded.  
_Nothing better than it._ Bellamy tightened a clenched fist.   
_Job's still not done. Kat, did the Kingslayers try to leak their HYM files out to other up and coming factories?_ Kato turned to her.  
_Yeah, there's a stream right now; halfway done with the upload. And here's a remote access terminal to its progress._ Kat manipulated some controls on her InReTs to show it to him.  
_Excellent. Let's see how he likes this._ Kato did some touchpad-manipulation of his own. _Alright. Files have been dealt with. Let's finish off the rockets we have here and get out._ Kato finished, moving towards the closest one and disarming it. Everyone else shrugged and complied.  
A couple minutes later, the crew were off in one of the parked Kingslayer vehicles that remained undamaged from their carnage, with the RC APC splitting from the path to a secluded spot. They reached their destination... Yes, an elite, upscale hotel pair of suites. While Nakajima and Davids had once more eluded them, by not being present in the arms factory, the fact that their currently only fully-functional complex has been razed to the ground would mean there would hardly be a way for them to immediately capitalize on the next stages of their collaborative plan alongside Satoshi and Kazuhiro, which means more time for the KAM team to figure out more ways to stop them.  
Yada stepped out of the bathroom, towel-drying her wet hair implying she had just finished showering. Seeing Kato seated at the study desk writing on one of his old notebooks with his left hand, and typing on his rugged netbook with his right hand. In addition, his rapid blinking and pupil movements indicated that he was using two different faculties with each eye as well. She shook her head as she stepped closer to him. "Hey, shower's vacant now; you ought to get some fresh-up too." She stated, laying a hand on his shoulder.  
"No thank you. This leaves me plenty energetic already." He answered back.  
"Yeah, I bet it does." Yada rolled her eyes.   
"Now that I have my memories back, Yada, I should mention that this was particularly what you had hoped for; you solved the only problem left in me. Now you don't have to worry about things between us being too hard." Kato opined.  
"A pyrrhic victory. So much prior progress has been lost." The CFO remarked.  
"I suppose you should've been more specific. Like a few instances before." The CEO stated.  
"And now we're back where we started." She continued on with her brief tangent.  
"Not exactly. I withheld information during that interval. Here I give to the letter." He argued.  
"All logic, no leeway..." Yada crossed her arms and sighed.  
The other four, situated all around the bed and sofa sections of the same suite and keeping busy with their own tasks while watching television did their best to ignore the tension on the other side.  
Said plasma screen depicted the news coverage from DW News Network.  
"<... As we continue further on this terrifying night, everyone, we have developing stories being told across the rest of Central Europe. Breaking news during the last two hours has covered the massive terrorist act in the heart of Dresden's historic manufacturing region...>" The German newswoman spoke to the camera.  
Yada initially looked on at the images, not understanding the language, until she activated her tactical contacts, which crafted a translation from the lip movements.  
"<... The industrial district of the state of Saxony's capital saw its Voight Small Arms factory decimated by a barrage of delivery trucks being utilized as battering rams. Later on, CCTV showed an infiltration team employing some sort of smart camouflage to attack the inside of the area while it was full of workers. They are most likely the cause of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage; though emergency response teams were not allowed to investigate the remains due to the nature of the production, managers and owners of the factory mention the loss of firearms and grenades.>" the anchorwoman continued on.  
_Damn, if the police could've looked into the carnage there, they would've discovered the chemical weapons and employed the GSG-9 to crack down on the regional Kingslayer parties._ Miho communicated.  
"<Now we are getting word that there have been a series of detonations happening with other factories owned by Voight spread across the continent. These include the facilities located in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, and Serbia.>" The woman looked aside before continuing. "<We have received word that another facility has been blasted; a Voight factory in Austria has similarly been struck. Though these factories lack the set up and invader presence found in Dresden, police and interpol are keeping their suspicions of a linked event, on the account of close, chronological proximity and focus on a single company.>" She finished.  
Everyone's eyes but Kato's immediately widened in response.


	12. Lone Wolf Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is thew chapter that might just change the future of the relationships between our most central characters forever...
> 
> And that will be a total shame, considering all of the zany adventures all of them have had together.
> 
> Oof, this one was tough to write.

As the DW news continued to run down whatever they knew about the explosive incidents concerning the Voight front, images came up with employee fatigues, mementos, and even charred corpses. Yada and Naoko couldn't help covering their mouths in shock, and a couple seconds later, the latter had to turn it off.  
Immediately, Yada's eyes contracted back into rage as she confronted Kato. "KATO!"  
"You request information?" He replied.  
"You blew those factories up?!" She rhetorically interrogated.  
"I told you; we had to take care of those facilities; prevent them from creating more HYM-loaded missiles." Kato reminded.  
"But by killing many innocent workers at the same time? How could you do that?!" The CFO inquired.  
"Technically, it was the Kingslayer's swift obsession with getting the information out to those facilities is what doomed them. The second their download of Dresden's upload finished on their side, the connected computer immediately overcharged the current of the entire facility and caused sparks that ignited the ungassed rockets. But again, Nakajima and Davids should have created copies of the data and sent it through disks rather than through area networks, and they might've avoided this possibility."  
"That didn't mean you had to help them kill them!" Yada angrily retorted.  
"Maybe not if we want anything less than a sure victory. But anything less than a sure victory could mean at least a district gets plagued by the HYM Virus, and no matter what, we cannot have that." The CEO continued on his work.  
Having had enough, Yada then slapped the notebook off of the study desk and shut his miniature laptop. "Take this seriously already! Like you used to!" She demanded.  
The Chairman immediately tried to open his computer back up, only for Yada to keep it closed. Giving up on that, he stood up to meet her face to face. "I don't quite see the big fuss is about, Yada." He claimed.  
"The big fuss is you're far too obsessed with the logic of this assignment, to the point that you have thrown the first monstrous act into the game!" She explained her stance.  
"That was quite an illogical statement right there, Yada." The CEO stated.  
"Is it? Up until now, the Kingslayers have only fantasized what they would do. Sure, they're committed to their shtick and they must be stopped, but now we're the ones who look evil." She responded.  
"I doubt that. For it's always been this way." He handwaved aside.  
"Oh, cruel to the few against those that are cruel to all?" She sarcastically considered.  
"The needs of the many always outweigh the needs of the few. That's why we always make sacrifices on ourself. That's why we throw our lives constantly on the line. That's why we funnel our own resources into these projects just to see them blown up when the purpose is done. Because our needs do not outweigh the many others." Kato argued.   
"You little..." Yada only grew more and more ticked.  
"Where was that sadistic side of you back when I really did hate you?" Naoko jumped off the bed and stood beside her AssUniv friend against him.  
"It worked though, didn't it? Kingslayer traffic in their communications is nominal." He argued.  
"Sir!" Kat called out to him, prompting all to look at her. "An unknown number is calling Satoshi's device using the Kinglsayer service right now. But Satoshi is not answering it at all."  
"Hmph. That's because they want *us* to be hearing this." Miho inferred.  
Eventually, the ringing ended and it went to message.  
"Hello, Team KAM. Nakajima here. It's been a bit since we've heard each other's voice so crisp like this, hm?" The researcher commented. "I must say, I'm both flabbergasted and flattered that you, Kato, have committed such a heinous act in an attempt to stop me and my Kingslayers. Seriously, the death toll of those works could easily number in the tens of thousands across Europe, and all to keep us from making any more missiles to distribute the HYM Virus however we wished..." Nakajima continued.  
"..." Everyone remained attentive.  
"I suppose it must scare you a bit still then, that we have some prepared rockets? Prototypes, sure, but functional nonetheless." Nakajima noted.  
Everyone pitched up their heads at the revelation.  
"Now, it's no fun for you to not be where we want you to be when we begin the ushering of the Wiser World, which is part of the reason why we haven't just dropped the ballistic wherever we were and set it off. We want you to believe you have a chance. Which is why we're telling you that we plan on unleashing the virus in the place where chemical weapons used in any combat scenario worldwide was deemed forever illegal. Also a very personal spot for you, since your grandfather, as Kazuhiro claims, did one last major deed as Oyabun there." The Vice-Kingslayer ringleader riddled.  
"Please, you're not even trying anymore. Geneva." Miho rolled her eyes.  
"I'm just going to assume you already know what I mean, so 'ding ding ding'. In one day and one night, we'll be there to unravel everyone's worst regrets. Now, you can use that day to give yourself whatever head start you think can achieve, despite the omniscient Satoshi and Kazuhiro there who know all of your possible moves. But I really, really, took interest in your sudden sense of maliciousness..." He further revealed.  
"Where's this going?" The Ministry asset put her hand to her chin.  
"So I want to test that." Nakajima noted. "We still don't know for certain if the HYM Virus can target children, since their minds don't quite deal with regret the same way adults like you and I do. We want to test that too." He added.  
"What a monster!" Kat reacted to the notion.  
"During the same hiatus day, we'll be sending a pack of Kingslayers towards a location exactly 63.3 km from the HYM target to experiment. Considering track records, we reckon the lot of you will certainly save at least a bunch of the children. But it'll seriously take a load out of your prep time. On the other hand, if you let this pass, even if do stop us, who can indisputably say which is the morally superior in this conflict?" Nakajima rhetorically asked. "Well, that's all. The time to find out who comes out on top rapidly approaches." The monologue ends with a dial tone.  
"What's the location 63.3 km from Geneva?" Yada looked between everyone.  
"Don't bother with that. It's a red herring. Nakajima even admits it." Kato handwaved it.  
"It doesn't matter!!" Yada stands up to him again. "Kids are in danger! You know, and we all know, Davids and Nakajima would surely do this, so we have to believe it will happen if we don't go to stop it!" She asserted.  
"Even if it is legit, it's not our issue. Priority number one is stopping the HYM Virus from annihilating the population of Geneva. If it falls, the rest of Europe will soon follow, given its nature as an ultimate cultural hub for the continent as a whole." Kato argued.  
"STOP IT!!" Yada has finally had enough. "Stop looking at the big picture for once! Stop running everywhere seeking gratification like you did when you were at your most lost!" She yelled again.  
This time, nobody else in the room could ignore the matter any further; Miho especially showed quite pain from the understanding of Yada's points, knowing how far the apathetic Kato has fallen.  
"Now tell me what is exactly 63.3 kilometers from Geneva- the one you believe is where this experiment is happening, and get ready because we're going to put a stop to it."  
"I concur, boss. We cannot let this pass." Kat shook her head.  
"And if we do, we're going to kick your ass all the way to the moon and back." Naoko similarly grew extremely ticked.  
"You will because I *am* your boss." Kato flatly stated to his Captains, who bowed with pained, closed eyes. "And Naoko, not only does your agency put priority on chemical warfare, but you're also not where you should be, yes? I wonder, since Karasuma and I are such buddies, would he trust me when I say you left your understudy to teach your recruits for the time being?" He pointed out.  
Naoko gritted her teeth and clenched two fists with anger at the elucidation.  
"As for you Yada... I guess I cannot stop you. So if you plan on going, I surmise that the experiment will happen in Lausanne." He declared.  
"Thanks. Now then... Miho do it!" Yada requested.  
The ex-JGSDF, needle in hand, proceeded to her Chairman and attempted to inject him with what appears to be the same mixture as the amnesiac drug used on him earlier, albeit slightly discolored, perhaps to counteract the apathy drug.  
Kato swiftly dropped to his knees to let the syringe fly over his head, and then back-rolled into an inverted double foot stomp, kicking his Captain a couple steps away; the surprise also causes the needle to fall pointy-end first into the ground, contaminating it beyond use. When he looks up, Yada shows that she too has a needle and also attempts to lunge it into his neck. And she would've succeeded, had it not been for Kato catching her wrist; the tip only an inch from any tissue.   
Yada then attempted to pound on the end to get just enough nudge to allow a stab, but Kato saw the hand wind up and caught her open palm, his fingers digging deep into her knuckles and twisting over, forcing pain compliance. He senses Naoko from behind and sidesteps it so that both ladies tackle into each other, falling over in the process.  
"Honestly, don't be surprised I knew this was coming; you all showed disdain for this form the moment I first spoke something." Kato mentioned.  
"You son of a bitch!" Naoko rose to three-point stance.  
"Hardly the first time I heard that. Though I must say it's the first from a friend."  
"Let us heal you, goddamnit!" Yada rose up, taking the needle back into her hand.  
"I do not believe that is the most optimal path to take right now." The Chairman responded.  
"Oh yeah? Because you like being like this?" The CFO bounced back.  
"Just what are you not getting from this purely-logical approach I am taking?" Kato shook his head.  
Then, just like that, Miho and Yada's eyes widened with astonishment once more. Kat and Bellamy too showed surprise.  
"The Hell does that mean?" Naoko questioned.  
"It means Kato defended himself because being empathetic again would be detrimental to the cause." Nylen described.  
"Yeah, we already kind of knew that going into this." The Agent looked to the Swede.  
"No, not like that. We had modified the drug to more accurately target the most affected memories; the source of all of his pain from the HYM Virus, so that he could function as his best self." Miho reminded.  
Then, Naoko's eyes flickered. "Oh... We thought that the memories that Kato was most affected by was the August 10th span that involved the deaths of his parents. But instead..." She figured.  
"It's really the August 10th of just a few years ago." Yada stepped up to Kato hesitantly, throwing aside the needle.  
Kato looked at her with unblinking, deadpan eyes, which refused to change when she then clutched his clavicles and began crying on his chest.  
"His worst regret... Was us falling in love." She muttered, continuing to tear up.  
"The drug would also eliminate practically everything Kato remembers of the main subject across all of his memories, as a means of ensuring the Virus cannot regrow from a minor recollection. He knows that if that did happen, he wouldn't trust Yada, who he'd consider a total stranger, enough to go through with this plan we've put her so essentially into. That's where the logic is." Bellamy figured.  
Kato remained silent as the situation went on.  
"You've deplored... Ever getting close to me..." Yada finally pushed herself off and looked him dead in the eyes. "All this time?!" She hollered.  
Kato blinks away the minor spit in her yell. "Yada-"  
The CFO didn't let him finish, headbutting Kato in his mouth, who steps away from the impact to assess the damage.  
Yada herself lightly rubs her forehead for a quick second. "You go and do what you think is best, Kato. I'm going to go save the people you won't." She asserted, before taking a change of travel clothes, her KAM equipment, an MPX Copperhead SMG, and her Hudson H9 pistol before slamming the door on all of them.  
"I'd say 'I'm starting to believe you like pissing off everyone you love,' but I'm way past the start with that now." Naoko turned back vehemently towards Kato, who continued to look on for an extended period.  
After a minute, Yada had left the NH Neustadt, rubbing aside any remaining drops from her cheeks while doing so. She immediately sees one car parked on the adjacent curb belonging to KAM - an Audi S8. She goes up to it with her ViTAL in hand to prepare for a Ur-Hotwire, but then it unlocks itself right in front of her. Surprised, she then follows the sound of a whistle coming from above and behind her; it came from Naoko, who was standing on the roof of the hostel.   
The Agent then tosses the keys to the high-performance German make, which the CFO catches. _Stay safe out there, you hear?_ Naoko stated through their micro-communications, perhaps for the last time.  
_Don't worry about me; we have a hub if the world to be concerned about._ Yada spoke back, before taking her comm-node and crushing it in her grip, getting into the S8 and driving off.  
Yada was able to broker a deal with a private cargo pilot to fly her and the vehicle to Lausanne - a three-hour trip to the home of the International Olympic Committee. When she did arrive and could begin her drive around town, it was not too difficult for her to find evidence that there have been strange occurrences with sudden newcomers in the area. In particular, there was clearly very few residents out on the streets at the ripe time of eleven P.M.; a highly unusual event.   
_Well, Nakajima wasn't lying about this being the place. I guess the lack of people here means there has been a quick string of kidnappings going on and everyone's heard about it by now. If he continues to be right, then the Kingslayers might just be kidnapping homeless children off the curbs and alleys. Disgusting bastards. I ought to look into the places some other civilians told me got struck to see if there are any traces I can examine and pinpoint their location._ Yada cogitated as she neurologically put in the coordinates to a spot on her tactical lenses while continuing her cruise control.  
Following the GPS, she reaches the spot where three dark corridors converge and form a T.  
_Huh, only one unshielded heat signature in the immediate mile, even though a lonely foreign girl is walking into a secluded spot... Guess even the friendly-neighborhood gangsters are too afraid right now to capitalize on such a chance. Given any other context, I'd be a bit disappointed._ Yada remarked silently, as she went to investigate the only life-sign outside of any buildings in the vicinity. Said subject was crouched right behind a makeshift triangle of three dumpsters, and visibly shaking. "Hello! I know you're there!" She spoke in Japanese to her smartphone, which then reproduced the phrase in German.  
"<AH! Please don't take me!!>" A little girl's voice shouted back. Yada's device caught the vernacular and translated it to her.  
"<I'm not going to kidnap you, miss. I just want to talk to you.>" The CFO added on.  
After a couple of seconds, the auburn-haired child prudently stepped out, still rather unsure about Yada. Though she wasn't ready to make assumptions just yet, the slightly-distressed makeup and clothing choice made the latter believe this wasn't a street urchin; at least, not one that fits any common description of one.   
The latter took a knee to meet at her face-level. "<What's your name, little one? Mine's Touka.>" She greeted.  
"Z-Zoey." She identified.  
"Zoey... <What were you doing back there, anyhow?>" Yada inquired.  
"<I was meeting my... Friend here just for a catch-up chat. But then we heard commotion out in the front. She thought it was police who were looking for runaway a psych-ward hobo... Somebody else came out, looking for someone like her! I was afraid, and didn't join her going out there, instead hiding waiting them to pass. I grew more scared that they would find me when I get out, so I stayed in her for the past three hours.>" She was tearing up while speaking too.  
"<Smart of you.>" Yada assured her.  
"<I'm so ashamed. My friend got taken and I didn't try to help her. But could I have done anything, when the vehicle wheeled into here, and they made a quick scan to see if I was here too?>" Zoey extended.  
"<You've done a lot already, Zoey. You told me. And I'm going to make sure they pay. And if I can, I'll bring back your friend.>" The older woman affirmed.  
"<You will?! But um-!>" The girl hesitated.  
"<Yes? What is it?>" Yada looked perplexed.  
"<She's... Actually a bit more than my friend.>" The child confessed.   
"Oh!" Yada realized what she meant.  
"<She was a much better friend than most others I've had, so I didn't care about her homelessness. But society is a bit cruel, so I only met her at night in places like this.>" Zoey then looked Yada again in the eye. "<You said it could be possible she could be returned. Please do all that you can to make it so, so I can find her again and apologize! Please!>" She implored.  
"<I can promise you only my best. What's her name?>" Yada queried.  
"<Eloise.>" She identified.  
"<Okay. One last thing; you mentioned that the vehicle came through here, perhaps in search of you. Could you make out its license plate?>" Yada requested, holding out a small notebook and pen for her to write on.  
Zoey proceeded to write out eight characters in sequence onto the scratchpad.  
"<Thanks. Now, race back home as fast as you can; there are no cars out now to nab you or anyone else. If your parents question what happened, tell them the truth; this is bigger than any hierarchal conflict, you hear?>" Yada stated.  
"<I understand, miss Yada. Thank you.>" Zoey proceeded out of the corridor with Yada in tow, where they then went their separate ways.  
I might need to stop making such promises that I have no certainty I can keep. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop. Yada thought to herself once she closed her Audi's door. Okay, ZH 412816. ViTAL, show me where that plate has gone.   
After quickly piggybacking the CCTV network of Lausanne, she found Zoey to be telling the truth; the kidnapping vehicle, revealed to be a large box van, wheeled into view, and drove off. Fast forward tracking finds it makes a stop at another alleyway roughly five kilometers away and never came out; neither has anything else for that matter. _Hm, there must be a secret passage there that they are using to get into whatever experimental room they have. Gotta get there to investigate._


	13. Lone Wolf Matter; Second Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yada alone deals with the little morality experiment left behind by Nakajima in Lausanne, since it is now clear that Kato will not participate. It's a very trying time for her, especially as the plot thickens as to who exactly is in trouble and how it is affecting all parties involved, but the CFO must keep a strong mind to see this through.
> 
> You may also notice the change of translation brackets. After the previous time I submitted the last chapter on DA, I experimented with square brackets and found much less issues. Could change them, but so long as there's an indicator that they're not speaking the same tongue, is there really too much detraction from immersion with them as they are?

**Chapter 13 - Standalone Space; Second Matter  
**  
Soon enough, Yada in the S8 arrived at her destination, finding the tracked vehicle there as it was before long. _No removing the evidence? Bold of them. Foolish at the same time though._ She stepped out of the vehicle. Her tactical lenses turned on and made a quick circuitry scan of her surroundings, making it rather easy to find the fake wall. _A passage? Into this motel area? No way they could keep their work under wraps if it's done in there..._ The CFO then found the method to open up the wall; pulling out a loose brick and applying an electric current to the metal plate behind it. _Aha... Immediately goes down via ladder into under the basement levels. Let's see where it leads next._ Yada activated her KAM Suit and slid down the ladder. Just before descending too far, there was a lit-up switch that closed the fake wall, which she pressed to cover her tracks.  
The ladder descended to a winding narrow corridor, which Yada followed until it sloped up to a doorway in front of her and a thick metal drain cover above her. The openings in said cover revealed to Yada a short square staircase typical for a warehouse. _I see. This is a much more applicable spot to conduct experiments. And judging by the spatial distance covered to get here, it must be past two blocks from the fake wall. Helpful for these Kingslayers, but perhaps it was a godsend for minor political officials during G8. As I've searched up, Lausanne got pretty loud and boisterous over that period; they probably made tunnels like these to avoid possible lynching._ She refocused. _Now, there is commotion up and out there. Going to have to be quick, quiet, and selective in my battles. Who knows if they might just pull a hostage with a kid on me...  
_Immediately, Yada sprang up and gripped one edge of the drain's frame, lifting it silently up to allow her figure to flip through, before carefully replacing it. She tries for the steps, but hears a Kingslayer coming down and instead takes the empty section just behind where he was about to pass to avoid detection. She lets the man go to the next door, and then goes her way up.   
Like multiple times before, the CFO favored the top canopy cloaked with Octo-Ink to spy on the targets, but the Kingslayers seem to have grown wise to the tricks, employing independent motion sensors lining the ceiling. Luckily, with InReTs Auger-drilling, these were only a minor inconvenience each time she was about to step into them. In addition, she made use of its integrity filtering to also pick certain spots to leave micromachines of some sort. That didn't mean she had an answer for every surprise coming her way, though...  
_OhmyGod-!_ Yada couldn't help covering her mouth when she saw what was clearly a pyramid of corpses underneath a tarp that was poorly covering it. _They've already started! And worse... The HYM Virus does work on children._ She shook the pain aside. _I'm going to bring this place down, brick by brick if I have to! But first I got to get any remaining children out._ Needing more information to fulfill that objective, she listened in on group patrol conversations, so that she can find out just which secluded spot may be housing all of the younglings.  
"[I gotta say man, this is some pretty rough shit.]" One guard admitted in the vernacular. Yada still hasn't learned German, so she used her suit's faculty to record the audio and replay a translation.  
"[Don't be saying in front of the leads, man. Anything less but true devotion to the Kingslayer cause will even incur the debt that all men pay.]" His cohort cautioned.  
"[Oh and you are totally on board with this?]" The first bounced back.  
"[I was on board with a wiser world, especially after they told us we would get by once it was done. But all things considered, the HYM was made to kill everyone, so I find it almost as some sort of societal insult if we targeted everyone BUT little kids.]" The second reasoned.  
"[Dude, you're not right in head in some places.]" The former remarked.  
"[Whatever man. Keep it to yourself. And know that if something goes wrong and the higher-ups believe its cause to be sabotage from inside, I will throw you under the bus if they question me.]" The latter threatened.  
"[Yeah, like I'd be dumb enough to go and release the only one left, all this in mind.]" The premier spoke with irony.  
_Only one left?!_ Yada immediately latched onto those words.  
"[You are the one who's consistently watching over the cell; you'd be the prime suspect no matter what.]" The second reasoned.  
"[Thanks for the vote of confidence, jackass.]" The guard flipped a bird at him before turning away, and thus failing to notice his cohort flicking the matter aside.  
_Not anymore, Yada-san. You got to stay strong. Now follow him... And save that one._ She pumped herself up, dropping down to the top level of some storage shelves and kept close pace with the lone patrolman, meanwhile continuing to disable any security measures that were in her way, and leaving more micromachines on select surfaces out of public view.  
Eventually, the man stopped at a locked door leading into a private room. Knowing better than to dive in there and get caught like last time, Yada pulled out her Dragonfly-Bot again to perform the reconnaissance for her, and keep her relatively safe from any traps. _Little guy, show me what's going on in there._ She spoke to it while standing upside down on the ceiling once more, and controlling it through her InReTs.   
The miniature drone slipped through the wall grate and rested behind a couple cans on an aside table, watching the soldier's next actions, while also performing an AR scan of the vicinity to ensure it wasn't pitfalled.  
The Kingslayer then began speaking in German again to a large cloak that was quite obviously hiding a cage, prompting Yada to zero in on the voice and translate the audio once more. "[Hope you're comfortable in there. We still need you yet; the others went by too fast.]" He declared to whoever was behind it.  
"[NO! LET ME GO!]" A young, feminine voice called out, alarming the CFO.  
_Come on, Dragonfly-Bot; tell me it's safe! Come on!_ She frantically thought, hoping that it would urge the render loading bar to speed up.  
"[Ah, quit your whining. It ain't stopping anything.]" The man slapped one bar of the restraining room, before turning his attention to a nearby terminal on an adjacent table.   
"[You dick! Pervert! Infidel!]" The girl insulted in response.   
"[I said SHUT UP!]" He kicked the cage this time, causing it to rattle violently.  
"[AH!]" She reacted.  
Beeping within the room could be heard; it came from the pager that the Kingslayer pulled out from his fatigues. "[Well well, looks like you're up. Time to make your difference on the world. Sounds nice like that, yeah?]" He asserted before taking a key from the same surface.  
"[Stop!!]" She implored.   
The guard went back to the cage to unlock it. "[Promise not to kick around and I'll assure you it will happen quickly. Cannot be certain it won't hurt though.]" He quipped as the key fully turned and the door audibly clicked open. But at that moment, his face was suddenly forcibly shoved into the metal; not once, not twice, but thrice.   
The little girl yipped and repulsed back from the accompanying noises, including when the man's unconscious body fell over. She remained equally vigilant too when Yada finally flipped the covers open. "[Get away!]"  
"Whoa whoa! Easy!" Yada spoke back, instantly realizing she doesn't speak Japanese or English. As such, she turns to her phone and translates her next sentence. "[It's okay! My name is Yada; I'm here to get you out!]"  
"[Y-yada?]"   
"[Yes, that's me. Tell me, do you know anyone else like you anywhere else here?]" The CFO questioned, wanting to confirm that there isn't more she has to save, though she probably already got a definitive answer earlier...  
"[No, ma'am. I was set to be the last one. I don't even know what happened to the others; they just dragged them off screaming, and- And-!]" The girl frantically answered.  
"[Say no more about that. I understand now. What is your name?]" Yada changed the subject.  
"[Mmm... Mary, miss.]" She replied.  
Yada's heart almost literally sank when she realized she was too late to save Zoe's friend. But for this adolescent's sake, she had to look strong, so she sucked it up. "[A strong name. Live up to it, okay? We're going to get out of here, so you'll need to bolster your confidence and follow my lead. Can you do that?]" She inquired.  
"[I think so.]" She responded with a nod.  
"[Good. Let's get going.]" Yada put away her phone and quietly proceeded to the door, ensuring no reinforcements were coming. When it was so, she gestured to Mary to keep close.   
The two ladies continued to scamper along the ground towards a designated exit, which was surprisingly thinner in rank than one remembered.  
_Hm, something's not right..._ Yada activated her goggle functions to take an X-ray/Neuroelectric scan of the room; in total, only roughly fifteen Kingslayers were around. _What is all of this?  
_"[Miss Yada? What's wrong?]" Mary patted her shoulder in query.  
"[Oh, nothing. It's actually a boon for us. We should be able to get out much more smoothly.]" She answered, before prompting her to keep up.  
About ninety seconds later, they were within 40 paces to a marked exit. Judging by the InReTs mapping, the other side would be able to see the Sauvabelin Tower half a kilometer away.  
_[Mary, there's no more hiding from here on in. It's just one big sprint to that heavy door there. I will go first and take a cover spot so that you can get there safely. Just stay here until I give the word, yeah?]_ Yada whispered to her.  
_[Yes, miss.]_ Mary replied.  
Yada, H9 in hand, then sprinted towards the secluded corner close to the threshold, hoping to take the vantage point. But then...  
The CFO's goggle HUD mentioned something coming at a decent speed towards her, which according to the radar was on the same xy-plane. Which meant that it was either directly below her... Or just above. Immediately, she put up her Ballistic Shield to block her crown which caused the projectile to hit it and bounce to the ground. One quick inspection made her realize what it was; a Microwave Explosive!  
It detonates at her side, with a little extra kick that forces her to the ground and let go of her sidearm. Mary is blown over, hitting her head on a small crate on the way down, knocking her out temporarily.  
Yada shakes her head and crawls toward her recently-lost Hudson, only to see a boot step on it. Its owner then slides the firearm away, just as Yada's full eyesight returns and her KAM suit dissipates.  
"Couldn't leave well enough alone?" A familiar Japanese voice commented, refastening his gloves. He glowed very similarly to Yada did, indicatd his own KAM suit was damaged in the process.  
"You know I can't." Yada grit her teeth, rising back to her two feet. "Nakajima sent you to oversee this op, huh?" She postulated.  
"Not quite. He didn't expect a split in the team." Satoshi confessed.  
_Wait, what?_ Yada concealed her confusion. "Hmph. A little tunnel-visioned I imagine then." She taunted instead.  
"Perhaps. He believed the, as he describes, ruthless Kato would've kept even a bleeding heart like you away from this and focus only on stopping the launch." He explained.  
"But you knew better?" Yada pivoted her head in condescension.  
"If there was anyone who actually controlled my former boss, and therefore wasn't dictated by him, it was the woman he fell in love with all those years ago." He reminisced.  
"Nostalgia I hear?" She quipped.  
"Contempt. You made him soft, where he spends more time valuing victory for valor." The ex-JASDF corrected.  
"Alliteration aside, there's nothing bad about a man finding peace. But there is something bad about a man who's gone off the deep end and took someone else with them." Yada's tranquil aggression spiked during the latter half of that segment, as she cracked her knuckles. "And having witnessed what became of that, I know that there's Hell to pay for the perpetrator." The CFO threatened.  
"Hm..." He slit his eyes in concentration.  
"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" She noticed.  
"I'm just coming to accept words have no place here anymore." Satoshi surmised.  
"Now you're getting it." Yada concluded.  
Once both forces were finished forming the combat circle by pacing the same way, they then got into their respective fighting stances; Satoshi got into the traditional Toshu Kakuto stance, consisting of two open hands in front, blades facing his opponent, while Yada formed an unarmed Serada stance. A second later, they both dashed into the fray, with Satoshi starting with a running roundhouse kick. Yada ducked low and side-pivoted underneath the lower limb and appearing behind him. Satoshi quickly corrected with an opposite-leg superkick, which Yada pushed down with her close hand, and using the circular motion in doing so to charge up a back knuckle strike. Satoshi wasn't relenting after the second rejection, however, spinning the other way for a backfist. As a result, both forearms clash thunderously.  
  
-Ryu Ga Gotoku 6's OST "Loyalty Oath" plays.-

# 矢田 桃花VS土屋敏

## Touka Yada; Chief Financial Officer of KAM

### "You've fallen too far, Tsuchiya!"

## VS

## Satoshi Tsuchiya; Ex-Captain of the Kato Alliance

### "I might've been wrong all this time about you..."

  
After their arms both ricochet back towards them, Yada leads this time, with a close-leg front kick to Satoshi's chest. His close arm was bent to cover that area and absorbed all the damage, though the impact caused him to indeed take a step back, which was her intent to begin with, as she then came in with a dashing right right haymaker. Satoshi sees the wind-up coming a mile away and sets up the Keysi block to absorb that too... Except it wasn't all that she was going for. Preceding it was a low roundhouse kick that pushed Satoshi's front leg out of place, lowering the rest of his body and also breaking the foundation of the guard, exposing his cranium to the wild hook.  
Satoshi steps away twice from the deceptively-strong blow, seeing Yada immediately getting back to her original stance. Knowing she really means business, he loosens his wrists and hands before returning to his pose and scooching prudently into the fray. When he felt close and comfortable enough, he goes for a hook of his own with the close left arm, which prompts Yada to duck under while also setting a Cross Counter. And Satoshi knew it was coming, which was why he also wound up a tight-arc uppercut which would meet the CFO's chin as she went down. A good plan... Had it not been for Yada's far-raised arm actually a set up for a 12-6 elbow. She then slammed it down, meeting the ex-JASDF's front knuckles and stopping the upward attack dead.   
Yada did not disregard the hookshot that flew over her head, seeing it overswing and end with the fist past Satoshi's other shoulder. She did not let it return to its natural position, with her elbowing hand now keeping the half-straightjacket cinched. Her other arm gave some elbow smashes to his unprotected cheek, which again backed Satoshi up. Yada's peripherals see Satoshi's other arm ready a short-arc hook to her torso, so she pushes him away with a raised knee; the fist flies right in front of her abs.  
Yada shuffles to the side to avoid a left overhead punch by Satoshi, and her raised hands mean a jab is incoming. The ex-JASDF naturally puts up his guard... Only to find nothing coming, because she retracts it immediately and spins for a back kick to the gut. Satoshi's bowed form once more opens him to a hook punch with the other hand as she dashes to that flank. She keeps the pressure by staying close to his back, but knows to pull back when she sees Satoshi's mule kick in retaliation.   
Satoshi began this time, urging the CFO to get onto the defensive, blocking his several straights and checking some low kicks. One cross-hook kick to her knee does give the soldier an initial advantage as her guard drops as a result. But Yada switches position swiftly to end up behind him after a failed haymaker. She then picks up his back leg and pries him over with her knee on his back. The lifted leg then wrapped around his, linking her calf with his lower knee area. This made it so that when she dropped down, the joint in the lower limb was significantly stressed by her weight going on top of it. Hearing him grunt in pain, Yada then attempted to slither into the back mount, but Satoshi slid behind to counter it, forcing her to instead take the back and side clinch. The CFO couldn't even hold that for very long either; one far hook later, and Satoshi had spun out of it, getting back to his feet and attempting a hammerlock; she swiftly escapes with a toe stomp and two elbows to the ex-JASDF's face.  
After recovering, the man attempts another swing, but the woman ducks under and flanks him, kicking again at the stressed leg. When he doesn't automatically fall over, she frontflips over Satoshi's attempted headbutt, grasping his collar to throw him into the nearby factory shelves, pinning him to the wall with a series of calculated strikes (while avoiding his own). The seeming Coup de Grace occurs when Yada is forcibly thrown into the setup instead and eating a forearm smash to the face. A bait for Satoshi, as she then reverse STOs Satoshi's head into the center metal, and then took him into the three-quarter facelock, and backflipping with the help of the wall, performing a Shiranui neckbreaker. To add further insult to injury, upon landing with her opponent supine, she then dropped a high knee on his forehead, rolling away in stance.  
A couple seconds later, her vigilance was rewarded, as Satoshi slaps the ground with pent-up frustration and rises up with hardly any struggle. "You've certainly improved a lot since the AssUniv Program, Miss Yada. Quite a fast learner at that, all things considered. But you know very well that this was just me testing you, and it's going to a lot more yet to defeat one of your trainers." He described, cracking his neck before getting back into his stance as well.  
"Stick around; got a lot left." Yada rolled both of her shoulders. She resumed the contest with a left hook fakie shuffled into a right overhead roundhouse kick. Satoshi saw it coming a mile away and waited for just the right moment at which the lady's leg wholly went above her waist, after which he then blade-kicked her standing leg, causing her to crumble to the ground. Realizing that he was telling a truth like no other, she rises back up with a prudent guard, and then starting with a less-risky roundhouse to the shin. Unfortunately he anticipated that too and checked accordingly.   
She follows it up with a step-in uppercut, which he pulls back from, and then a spinning backfist. The ex-JASDF stops this last strike by front-kicking her exposed ribcage as she is about to complete the strike, again sending her back to the floor. He walks up to her with a series of jabs loaded, which the young woman Dempsey Rolls to evade, eventually finding an opportunity for a Schoolboy roll-up, that she planned on succeeding with a penalty kick. But Satoshi rooted himself deep into a horse stance, not budging at all from the leverage takedown. He then twists around to face her perpendicular body and axe kicks into a Cross Armbreaker. Thankfully, Yada is able to roll out of the submission before her elbow becomes overstretched, but Satoshi didn't let up there, delivering a spinning hook kick from three points that clapped Yada's temple.   
The CFO's ears were ringing, but she refused to let it show beyond a rub of the affected area, confronting Satoshi once more. She tries for a push kick, which was ironically pushed back before her leg could extend outward, then for a leaping roundhouse, which the ex-JASDF reverts the directory of by kicking her shin. This caused her to spin out painfully on the ground, back into the guard just as Satoshi charges in with a straight; having seen the attack just in time, she forms a pointed elbow that stops the two front knuckles dead. He swiftly follows it up with a hook, forcing the lady to duck and pivot underneath. Having learned from his overswinging mistake, Satoshi shows excellent muscle control by immediately converting the attack into a backfist as soon as his opponent brings her head back to level.  
Understanding that now more than ever she must make use of more of her assassin tricks again, she begins backing away desperately, with one hand seemingly clutching her damaged back. Satoshi smells blood and comes forward with a couple upper-body strikes. By this point, the lady hits a wall with her back before bobbing her head... Which the ex-JASDF doesn't match, only coming within an inch of. Hurting himself was Plan A, but Yada did have a Plan B, as her hand behind her was to unhook the canvas belt around her shorts. She immediately constricts Satoshi's latest striking arm and smacks the metal buckle into his face (karmically, this makes him produce blood in his mouth) before shuffling behind him.  
From here, she lassos his closer ankle and trips him up with a pull. Now prone, Satoshi was vulnerable to an overhand swing of the metallic weight coming onto his back, which made him whip his head up in pain; not the best reaction, for Yada then punted the side of it. Two major slams later, however, Satoshi grows wise and begins evading the next few, and gets in close to eliminates its advantage. Yada tries for the weight-assisted punch, but Satoshi cross-counters easily, and turns it back on her, attempting the garrote choke. Gagging, the CFO takes her only option - lifting a heel violently into a pair of jewels. Satoshi shows his first bout of true irritation during this contest by releasing the hold and delivering several high knees to sections of her diaphragm, with the last one sending her briefly off of her feet.  
After half a dozen seconds, Yada finally rose up from her sprawl, painfully gripping her affected ribcage. Satoshi showed no sympathy to her as she slapped some circulation once more and got into a compromised guard, though he did give her the sporting chance of starting the next interval. She took it, dashing in with an instep sweep kick followed swiftly by a high spinning hook kick with the other leg, which the ex-JASDF avoids by pulling back twice. Yada then came in with a flurry of kickboxing straights and hooks, which were all nudged out of range by Satoshi, before he interrupts with a bolo punch starting from below the volley, hitting her square on the lower mandible. The blow once again puts her down, but out of sheer will, she keeps three-point stance while clutching the affected area. Satoshi sees the end is near and powers up a downward right straight to her temple to knock her out cleanly.  
But it was blocked with a catch. Yada's right hand enwrapped his knuckles, with her left supporting the pushback. Satoshi hesitated for a bit, seeing her determination persist. Then her head lifts up, and her eyes confirm it; defiance of the highest degree, and a refusal to be pitied, as she seems to believe he is doing by not trying to end it now. He remedies this by going for a left roundhouse to the side of her head, but she ducks again, allowing the leg to fly past to the other side while she clutches his right wrist still; she forced him to put himself in a pumphandle. Her free hand coiled across his waist and she mustered most of her strength into a modified German; the underhanded pull forced his head to remain bowed, causing him to land nape-first onto the concrete ground.   
Upon impact, Yada couldn't maintain her bridge of the motion. But that was alright, for she planned to turn back to standing while keeping the arm clutched, so that she could pull Satoshi back to his feet and for a short-arm lariat, clocking him square in the nose and putting him down supine. However, she still maintains wrist control, and begins hoisting Satoshi up in a hammerlock, anticipating the Pepsi Twist lariat... But before she can complete the attack, Satoshi finds life again and uses his free arm (which Yada pushed behind her to expose his face) to compress a pressure point on Yada's clavicle, causing the whole move to crumble. It also left her vulnerable to a knee lift to her chest, followed by a low heel kick to her politeal, bringing her to her knees again. The ex-Captain doesn't take any more chances now, launching a roundhouse immediately with the other; shin smashing into Yada's occipital lobe. The final strike bounces the CFO's head on the ground; her prone body showing noticeable twitching in response.  
  
-OST ends.-  
  
Satoshi wiped away one last lingering trail of blood before walking up to his fallen opponent. Despite the heavy pain she's in, Yada still shows signs of life, clenching two fists and getting into a struggling sprawl.  
"I always thought Kato got soft because of you. But with you taking this beating like a champ, I guess I was mistaken. Though that just means he was a little boneless to begin with." Satoshi declared, following her slowly as she attempts to regain her strength with a brief crawl away. When he's seen enough, the ex-JGSDF then punts Yada's torso.  
"KYAA~!!" She screams in pain, clutching her ribcage after rolling over.  
"Maybe he put what he lost in you. Would make some sense." Satoshi then took a knee and calmly collected a large collection of Yada's hair, which lifted her up when he rose up again.  
Yada herself grunted loudly at her mane being so forcibly pulled, but could not do much else to resist it aside from clutching the wrist of the pulling arm with her far hand.   
"Such a shame you're on the wrong side of history." He brought his face close to hers and stared coldly into her eyes, which counteracted her defiantly heated gaze. "Now for you to take a nap." Satoshi's free, gloved hand then took something from out of his outer-thigh pocket. He then crushed it, causing a liquid to coat the accessory. He let it fall to the ground and then shoved his open palm into her lower face.  
"MMH!" Yada groused, immediately realizing from the scent what the substance was and tried to pull it away from her nose, to no avail.  
Satoshi continued to keep the glove firmly on her, apathetically gazing into Yada's eyes, whose eyelids were becoming heavier and heavier for her.  
Witnessing that her wrestling wasn't working, Yada then tried to strike at Satoshi to force a release, but that too proved ineffectual. "Mm! Mmh. Eeennnh..." She slowly began passing out, with her grip on Satoshi's wrist going limp, and eyes rolling back. Roughly ten seconds later, she fully lost consciousness, her hands hanging all but senselessly.  
Knowing this, the ex-JASDF tossed her limp body to the ground. "I truly must ask for your forgiveness, ma'am. But there is little else we can do, all things considered..." He declared over her.  
-Some time later...-  
"[Miss! Miss!]"  
Yada's eyes strained in response to the interjections combined with some nudging, which, when compared to Satoshi's strikes, was rather gentle. "Ergh..." She finally managed to focus and started rising up.   
"Oh Gott sei Dank!" The little girl held her chest with relief.  
"Mary?" Yada identified, shaking her head free of the cobwebs. She also noticed that the child's face was bruised, no doubt due to suffering a backhand by Satoshi during the earlier scuffle. She swiftly felt herself to find her smartphone, even though she perhaps knew it had fallen out. Thankfully, Mary seemed to have recovered it, seeing as how she presented it to her. "Thank you." Yada expressed her gratitude, before opening up the translator app. "[Where'd the man go, Mary?]" She spoke to the microphone.  
"[I don't know. I woke up to you on the ground, and him gone. I had been trying to wake you up for all of the last five minutes. When more bad people were coming, I rolled you behind these machines so that we could stay out of sight.]" The young one explained.  
"[Clever.]" The CFO thought to look at the time on her device, realizing it to have been almost twenty minutes since the scuffle seemingly ended. She also noticed that the door they had attempted to go through prior to fighting Satoshi has now been blocked by an unsurmountable formation of burning supplies. "[If he's not here anymore, then we don't need to be either. Now, stay here while I get some things ready; I'll come back and-]"  
But before she could finish, sudden tremors in the facility occurred.  
"AHH!!" Mary covered her ears and cried.  
"Shh!" Yada quickly covered her mouth, in case any guards were nearby.  
"[What was that, miss?]" The child pulled the palm down briefly to whisper.  
"[Someone must've triggered my toys without realizing... Alright, scratch what I said just now, Mary. We're getting out of here right now.]" Yada assured the little girl.  
"[Really? Then let's do it!]" She cheerfully exclaimed.  
"[Alright, stick close, and stay behind when I tell you to, just like before okay?]" Yada put away her phone after she nodded. They both treaded carefully in a crouched stance, switching between cover quickly when they began hearing voices from alarmed Kingslayers, who were either attempting to put out the fires or escape them.   
A trio that was doing the latter found it rather futile, especially when a nearby petrol tank detonation refueled the inferno. "Okay, fuck this! Let's just get out of here!" The one dropped his large pail.  
"Agreed!" The other two more or less confirmed, running with him towards an exit.  
Yada had tucked her head and Mary's deeper behind their crate cover to avoid looking for too long at the brightness spike. By the time it re-stabilized, the guards had left their position, allowing them to proceed to the next room.  
A few cut corners later, Yada finds that someone is sticking around to make sure others escape the inferno. Noble enough for them, but unfortunately he is in the way of her and Mary getting to a viable climbing spot to reach the next section undetected. She then sees a grate identical to the one she used to infiltrate the warehouse in the first place and her instincts flare up. She claims a crowbar and rams it curved blunt-end first into the side of the man's head, knocking him out clean, before lifting up the drain (with a little extra effort due to not having EM-Traverse to assist her) to have the man fall through it, rendering him mostly safe from the impending fire and ashes.  
Now briefly incognito, Yada then boosts Mary up the scaffolding to cross over to the next section, avoiding a trio of a skeleton crew. When they encountered another one standing alone but in the way of their exit (a truck depot with the garage doors open), Yada also saw one truck full of Kingslayers arriving in the area. Knowing that this was the only safe way out at this point but it would be very messy if reinforcements manage to leave the vehicle, Yada immediately began planning her next attack, and got it right before it wheeled in; she gestured to Mary to stick around, and takes her phone into her hand, softly transitioning through the cover of crates scattered around the concrete. She then waited for the right moment for when the raised truck passed through the doors to quickly take its immediate flank and following it until it hit a stop. She continued to hug its chassis around its front wheels and grille, sliding her phone below its undercarriage, and then springing out of cover to slam the straggler's head on the hood. The phone then detonated, drilling a hole through a central engine and causing the truck to roll back down the ramp; the two Kingslayers in the front managed to get out, but Yada used a Wire Wrest to hook one of them and her current victim to the bumper, dragging them away. The one on the far side of the vehicle is subject to a lead round to his foot (courtesy of his cohort's lost Five-seveN that Yada seized, stunning him for a bicycle knee strike that knocked him off the raised platform and into a dumpster that shut itself.  
With the dangers over, the young lady then returned to the deep end of the depot. "Mary!"  
The sole adolescent survivor peeked out of cover hearing her name called out by her savior. She spoke, but since her translation machine was gone, Yada couldn't understand her.  
"Come on, we got to run for it now!" She spoke out, regardless of the message behind what she heard.  
Mary did step forth, but she persisted with her puzzling vernacular, adding in some rather frantically urgent pointing, first at Yada's eyes, and then touching her own.  
It was at that moment that Yada realized just what she meant. But by then it was too late.  
"AAHHHH!!"  
The CFO screamed with unadulterated anxiety, clutching her head in a malign vice grip. Her legs lost any strength they had left and crumbled beneath her, causing her body to collapse on the ground.  
"Fraulein Yada!" Mary got onto her knees right next to her.   
Yada couldn't stop the waterworks coming from her eyelids; the painful, anguishing memories that the HYM Virus is making her relive magnified to ludicrous extremes. Amongst her worst regrets included facing her parents (with her brother sadly watching) after the decline in her grades pushed her into Class E of Kunugigaoka, not trying to help Kurahashi get over her initial withdrawal upon seeing Karasuma "get away", believing she didn't do enough to keep AssClass together during the aftermath of their year together, and driving Kato away upon conclusion of AssUniv. But of course, the worst regret of all... Being an accomplice to Korosensei's assassination.  
"Fraulein Yada, was ist los?!" Mary, clueless to the bioweapon, questioned apprehensively.   
"Da sind sie!!" A stray, masculine voice declared, speaking over steps that were progressively getting louder. Mary rose up and turned to its source in horror.  
With Yada's brief moments of awareness remaining, she too recognized the approaching garrison. She pulled on Mary's left pants hem to catch her attention. "Run!!" She implored. "Go! Get out!" She also let go and gestured her wishes the best she could.  
"Bitte!" Mary responded, refusing to stray from her, even when the Kingslayers came into view, creating a hemisphere of firearms around them.  
"Gut gut gut..." One of them spoke, double-taking between both ladies.  
Yada used every ounce of her concentration to stay where she was and not fade back into her past, even though she won't be able to avoid capture at this point. Or worse...  
"Ergreife sie beide." Another spoke.  
"Nein!!" Mary bounced back, though similarly her resistance was ineffective.  
_I'm sorry... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,...._ Yada reached her breaking point, about to black out from the present.  
"Was zum-?!" She made out some more sounds. One lingering blink later, she could hear gunshots while staring into blank space. Another blink later, her sight was somehow moving. And a blink after, Mary came into view, first inspecting Yada, then at the one above her. The CFO managed a head turn, with the last thing she saw before finally sleeping was... A mask and hood of peculiar origin.


	14. Prelude to the Final Set of Matters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Climax is upon us. It all ends in Geneva, where the war against chemical warfare officially began.

-Some time later...-  
Yada quickly came to, her wisteria-colored eyes reflecting her surroundings. Namely, a highway road before a set of steep hills aplenty with small vegetation. The skies were rather light, indicating to her that it was a morning. But the question, among many others, was what morning was it? She rose up from her semi-fetal position in preparation for finding out, also clutching her face, which had been properly treated of its earlier injuries.  
"Ah, you're awake. It wasn't a matter of if, considering your resolve, though; just when."  
Yada swiftly turned around upon hearing a stray voice. Despite it being one that she knows really well, she was nevertheless eyes-wide-open with bewilderment. It was so inconceivable in fact that she had to scooch across the roadside table a bit to look them in the eyes from aside.   
There beside her, Kato sat. He looked to the horizon of the body of water where the sun came from - Given where the CFO just was, and the relative shape of the area, this was somewhere on the high coasts of Lake Geneva.  
"Enjoying the view? It's a sunrise - completely different than the one we saw upon first reuniting," Kato checked his watch. "... Several days ago. Remember? When you punched me? And asked to do so?" He coyly reminded.  
Yada got over her initial shock, only to begin frantically wondering where her rescued attendee was.  
"If you're wondering where the little one is, she's in the car over there." He pointed to their left. Yada could make out her face in the backseat, resting. "Poor, fragile soul's been through a lot in the past day; no doubt she needs some peace." He remarked further.  
Yada continued to remain silent as she gazed around further, locating her KAM AtTac Suit fully rendered while lying on the seated portion of the lunch table; The toolbox nearby it indicated Kato's involvement in rebooting it from the microwave damage. But that also reminded her... "The HYM Virus in me?" She finally spoke.  
"In remission." Kato declared. "You'd be surprised how easy it was to make it so, by the way. When I extracted the both of you from that warehouse, I immediately gave a shot to your left ear canal."  
The young lady couldn't help but feel the mentioned area, the lingering pain on cue from the relay.  
"The payload was a transmitter which created an antiresonance to the bouncing frequency that is causing the HYM Virus to cripple your neurons. With them canceling each other out, the chemical composition becomes just a bunch of common elements, unable to reprogram your brain to recall those terrible memories." The Chairman assured his CFO.  
By now Yada sat properly and comfortably, sidesaddle and leaning towards Kato's close arm with relative understanding of his pseudo-lecture.  
"It's not perfect as a cure, as I had been establishing since," He checked his watch again. "... I formally entered this operation. The transmitter needs to know all of your body's dimensions to ensure all neurons get cleansed equally. Now, we know that I know all of your specifications perfectly, but the rest of Switzerland's population? Now we'd be in trouble. Hence, the vaccine." He cautioned.   
Yada finally broke her bout of indifferent reflection with a snicker at the fact that Kato mentioned his knowledge of her measurements. "Regardless, I imagine you found out how to do this by curing yourself, hm?" She postulated, brushing some of her hair behind her. "It's pretty ingenious, if a bit brutish."  
"Not quite. I had this idea from," Kato checked his ticker once more. "The moment I found out how the HYM Virus was triggered." He answered.  
Yada expressed puzzlement again. "Then, the memory loss?"  
"Legitimate. Those drugs really did make me lose my memory. But when Satoshi reminded me back in Vienna, my recollection was restored. Which was when I knew how to stop it. On my own."   
"And the apathy?" The lady added on.  
"An act. I didn't allow those drugs to affect me, but I played along."  
"That was all fake?!" Yada now showed aggression, pushing him.  
"Yada, kindly recall that I have one-hundred-percent brain usage and muscle control. Did you believe I would let something so foreign dictate me for more than a day if it didn't try to kill me first?" Kato finally looked at her for the first time this conversation. By the time the Vienna mission was over, the HYM strain in me was just a spanked little dog."  
"But why would you feign being apathetic?" She inquired, though she realized the answer almost immediately afterward. "Because you wanted me to stand you up, and leave you behind. Satoshi said that Nakajima wouldn't believe we'd split up to tackle both Geneva and Lausanne at once; but when he found a stray vehicle enter the latter, he got cold feet." She relayed.  
"Hmm." Kato grunted.  
"The factory explosions too?" She hoped.  
"Also fabricated. Dalsing and Alvarez worked through the list of locations Satoshi's phone has logged, traced by Bishop. They made sure everyone was out... Days before they made the announcement they would all crumble." Kato assured her.  
"Playing with everybody's minds again... While we were pitying your depreciating psychological state." She shook her head with disappointment.  
"I truthfully didn't mean to harm you and-or the rest." He assured her.  
"It's all a part of the job, I know." She sighed. "At least I got your absolute honesty in the meanwhile, however painful that too was to find out."  
"And what was I absolutely honest about?" Kato looked away.  
On cue, Yada again showed perplexity. "About your greatest regret."  
"Which is?" Kato returned her stare.  
Now she grew ticked again. "You and I becoming something more."  
"That's not true." He flatly declared.  
"Of course it is." Her eyes slit with irritated focus.  
"No it isn't, Yada. I don't lie, as you recall." The CEO shook his head.  
"But when I said it straight to your face hours ago, you didn't disagree." The CFO mentioned.  
"Did I say I agree?" He retorted.  
Yada looked away with concentration on the query, realizing the validity. "You...?"  
"I cannot help but notice that when people try to stay ahead of me these days, they often start by attempting to put words into my mouth. Playing along for the sake of the true plan has become a mainstay as a result." He then paused. "I needed you to really be disgusted with me during that apathetic phase. I made a hunch that saying that and nothing else would work, and I suppose my gamble was right."   
"But then... What do you really regret from August 10th, six years ago?" She countered.  
Kato looked down, blatantly emoting self-deprecation. "I lament that the moment I woke up the next morning, fondly kissing you on the forehead, that I knew one day we would have to break it off." He sighed. "I don't regret being in love with you, Yada. I regret that all this time, I knew I had to break your heart when everything was over."  
"So from Fukuoka to Irina's delivery... You had that idea to break up."  
"I told you back then Yada, that I was afraid of what could happen. If it at all matched what came before in my family - the images I remember when I was," Kato checks his watch. "...Eleven, being mirrored on you - I don't think I could ever forgive myself."  
"..."  
"Here are the things, though, Yada. For one thing, I know you can take care of yourself; really well at that, so I was being irrational. But more importantly, the time between you," Kato checked his timekeeper again. "...Becoming a new hire at KAM and then being promoted to CKO, I went through quite a phase. I got home after point-manning three operations in the Caribbean, including the M-Gulf Operation with Miho. Once I was back on Japanese soil though, it was routine for me still; apply laceration remedies, get caught up on the latest executive reports on KAM, and repair any broken technology I've salvaged and brought back. But when I saw that I had no cuts to heal up, my document queue was empty, and I had already patched up all the equipment in under an hour, I realized this." Kato returned his gaze to Yada. "I can live without you, Yada. I have for more than two-thirds of my life, so that's how I know. But you definitely changed me for the better - make me actually seek to see through the end of my missions with my comrades and enjoy their time together outside of battle. So, while I don't need you to be within my reach, Yada... I wouldn't want you to be anywhere else." He confessed.  
Her eyes widened at the revelation.  
"So I would be happy if you would say you'd stand by me, through thick and thin, happy and sad. But only if you want to as well." Kato concluded.  
Yada covered her mouth in overwhelming reflection. "Well, Kato... You're the man who commands leagues of potent souls with virtually unquestioned authority. All those people in the Kato Alliance, KAM, QK, or whatever, they'd go to Hell for you. But..." She hugged his close arm and rested the side of her head on his shoulder. "If you can promise me that you'll remain the person who knows that, but never actually commands them to do it, then I know you're the person I fell in love with. And that means I would stand by you too. Anywhere." Yada asserted.  
Kato's smile told the story; he was overcome with euphoria at her answer. "Easiest promise I've ever made." He answered.  
"So..." Yada reciprocated his grin. "Does that mean we're back together?" She asked.  
"This is really good, Yada. Downright incredible, even. But you know perfectly well that that is not possible with our situation."  
"I know." Yada responded.  
The duo then continued to stare at the rising sun for another minute. After that, Kato drove the reclaimed Audi to an adoption shelter in Bursinel to drop off Mary, and then began heading back to Geneva.  
Kato pressed on his left-side bluetooth while driving for the remainder of twenty-five kilometers back to the second most-populous city of Switzerland. "Miho, and co." He identified.  
"Ah, it's so good to hear your voice like that, Boss." Bellamy remarked.  
"Good to be back in top form." Kato reacted, smirking with Yada in the meantime. "How was the situation in Geneva while we were gone?"  
"Exactly as you had anticipated, sir." Kat answered. "A ghost spyplane came within a couple-hundred kilometers of the city the second they saw an Audi head for Lausanne. Clever by the way, Boss, to be operating those vehicles during the time when they're all but banned in the nation; I thought it would give us away, but that's what we wanted." She reiterated.  
Yada looked into the glove compartment, opening a small box that contained an extra bluetooth earpiece; she put it on her left ear and joined the conversation. "What of that plane?" She questioned.  
"The aircraft was quickly brought down. Nakajima and the Kingslayers certainly did not suspect their hangtime getting cut short via a well-placed surface-to-air AP round from one of our Barretts."  
"Still got it." Naoko remarked with singsong.  
"Indeed. Anyways, they were using that plane to scope out alternate, obscure routes that they can take for traversing the city." Miho recounted.  
"Whatever for? If they wanted a virtually unavoidable deployment of the HYM Virus, they'd probably use the M55 rockets they got away with. And if they really wanted to catch Kato in a hope spot, they'd use another ghost plane to carpet the city. And this time, they'd make sure it has the proper countermeasures to defend against being taken down." Yada wondered.  
"We're not certain ourselves, to be honest. We figured it would be so that they knew how to get to the power plant, central signal station, and broadcasting towers. But they would seriously be deviating off-course." Bellamy noted.  
"We can worry about this when we return. For now, I think we can plan out how we will defend the city." Kato established.  
"Very good. Kat, Bellamy, and I will make sure nobody touches the main signal towers when it comes nightfall and the dispersement plane approaches." Miho asserted.  
"I've got the rockets and the vaccine frequency. The signal station will be where I can install the antinoise device and breach the guidance chips on those missiles. Hopefully I can reprogram all of their coordinates to land in a remote destination." Naoko added on.  
"I'll make sure the electrical grid stays online, so the station can maintain its power." Yada stated.  
"And I got Davids; he'll certainly be somewhere near Geneva to watch his fireworks. I'm going to pack him neatly into a box sent for Hi-Q. I'll also float around the city to provide backup for the rest of you if there is focused trouble on any particular spot." Kato finalized.   
"Excellent. Now you two really need to get here so that we can go over the semantics. Double time." Naoko reminded.  
"We're on it." Yada assured her friend before closing communications. Kato briefly glanced at her, but just as quickly returned to paying attention to the road, which she noticed. "Lose something over here, Kato?"  
"Power station could be where the most trouble is. And you're still hurting. Will-" He began.  
Yada punches his exposed ribcage to interrupt him. "What I got right now hurts me as much as that does you." She clarified. "Now let's hurry."   
Kato hardly flinched from the responsive strike, which was all of the affirmation he needed to continue without further vocal preoccupation.  
The duo reached Geneva, rendezvoused with the rest of their team, going over the plan's specifics one last time, and getting acquainted with all of the technologies they would need to utilize. While the Ministry asset reaffirmed her worry over if the gas had already been dispersed onto the city, or rockets could be flying prematurely to their presumed time, Kato and Yada continued to reinforce their claim; they would indeed wait until nightfall, if not only because they require that phase of the day to capitalize on ghosting, but that too would make it so that Kato would have no excuses if he lost this game with Davids and Nakajima. That was, after all, the biggest reason one of them has signed up for this maniacal agenda.  
Hours passed by, and it soon came to evening in Geneva. Nightlife illuminated the entire area, and citizens and tourists alike were dotting the streets, none the wiser to a possibly-impending doom. From the outskirts, a complement of six diverse people - four women and two men, come out from a small storage depot, and get into land vehicles distinct from one another, driving in an arrowhead formation that breaks off one by one through exits on the adjoining highway.  
"4D radar indicates a ghost plane has reached altitude." Bellamy, in a light-steel Mercedes-Benz G-500, noted, viewing his online terminal mounted to the dashboard. Judging by his trajectory, he was heading towards the city's southern tower.  
"Keep us posted on when it will arrive. Once it is in position, we know the Kingslayers will make their victory call." Miho reminded in an orange-black Chevy Camaro, cruising towards the northeast section.  
"I've put in a search algorithm for Satoshi, Kazuhiro, and Nakajima's facial specs on my CCTV hotwiring program; we should be able to locate them if they are at all traversing the streets. Should make your work easier, Chairman." Kat noted as she made her way to the west in a Toyota 4Runner.  
"Hopefully it will help us gals know too when we're going to expect trouble." Naoko was flooring it in a white Subaru BRZ towards the local building for SRF3; the most popular radio station in the nation.  
"We could already be expecting trouble the moment we get there. But that's okay, because we're ready for anything now." Yada assured everybody, blasting towards the power grid in a Lexus LC.  
"Alright, everyone. This ends tonight." Kato asserted, burning rubber in a matte-black Ford F-150 Raptor; a Jumper motorcycle can be seen fastened very firmly to its trunk.   
Within two minutes, everyone was within coherent visibilities of their destinations. The three Captains quickly caught sight of individuals that "seemed off" and quickly dealt with them before arriving at the base of the tower. Once they did, they went to each leg of the foundation and planted a basketball-sized device. Said machine then sprouted legs, generated a blue-hued force-field and began crawling up the structure.   
"Your first trophy systems are up and running just like mine?" Kat said to her comms as she saw her countermeasure walk up towards the upper-echelon of the signal tower.  
"Affirmative." Bellamy confirmed.  
"Mine's functioning normally." Miho concurred.  
"Very good. It should protect the tower from any projectile short of an ICBM coming from that cardinal direction. Now get to the other frames and install the others." Kat added on.  
"Well, that's certainly going to be easier said than done." Miho noted, seeing three SUVs full of Kingslayers approaching. "But not much easier." She grinned before taking the Spike's Tactical Spartan SBR from behind her back and loaded it.  
"I see." Kat worriedly saw similar reinforcements arrive, as she unfolds the stock of an LWRC SMG-45.  
Bellamy pulled out his Glock 22 and checked both of his flanks, though finding no such opposition. "I don't." _What is with this? Am I not good enough for these apocalyptic fools?  
_Rather similarly, Naoko faced no opposition when she entered the SRF3 offices. "Nobody home but some security. Guess they're waiting for me to make the first move before they all come rolling in." The Agent postulated, as she came out of a janitor's closet, kicking the door back to a closing position. A groan that sounds native could be heard just before the slam. She then pulled out the antinoise device from one of her tactical bags. "Now let's see where we need to put you..." She thought aloud, scouring the numerous server racks associated with radio broadcasts, in search of the proper chassis. When she finally located it, she used an open USB port to install the machine, and ran the execution program from her InReTs screen.   
While that was loading up, Naoko then moved towards another set of racks dealing with data-transmission piggybacking. She made note of its management IP and then went to the computers before an array of television screens, changing all of their inputs into extra displays for the terminals; in particular, this included an ASCII-drawn radar that seemingly represented devices affected by the projected frequency, a technical-specifications analysis of said devices, a queue of untested frequencies, and CCTV giving an establishing shot of Lake Geneva in night vision. "Okay... Everything's all set. Now I just need to find the frequencies needed to hijack the missile's seeking programs and redirect them into the lake. But that begins with some missiles flying into view..." Naoko quickly diverted attention when she saw the first blip come up. "Ah, speak of the Devil that I know." But then her eyes flared up further when two new blips revealed themselves... Along with roughly three dozen others. "What the fuck?!" She cursed, before re-psyching herself up to start discerning the true targets.  
Meanwhile, Yada made it to just outside the city to its power grid. Realizing that some vehicles that clearly weren't staff's were parked, she stopped her LC behind a backside storage depot to keep it out of sight. Quietly, she made it to behind a far wall, seeing roughly ten different Kingslayers attempting to break into the front of the main control building. _Hm, they're all facing the door right now..._ Yada then looked towards one of the vehicles they came from, smiling at a new idea brewing. She got closer and then slid a device underneath the targeted SUV. She then spent the next two minutes ducking in and out of cover to reach the far side of the area, and then pressed on some of her InReTs controls.  
A loud, somewhat squeak-like sneeze reverberated throughout the vicinity, catching the entirety of the platoon's attention. The closest one briefly looked back toward his comrades, who all urged him to check it out. They all continued to watch him as he followed the sound's path back to its origin, Troy M7A1 rifles at the ready. Realizing that it came from the undercarriage the single Kingslayer crouched down to investigate, only to find the device, with a Throw-Voice micromachine attached to the speaker. Picking it up and turning it around shows him nothing of further interest to the instrument, but the fact that it's here indicates that there is a threat nearby. "[Hey, guys. Someone's here. We need to be vigilant.]" He spoke aloud... But received no response. "[Guys?]" He repeated, still inspecting the machine, before becoming impatient and turning around. "[Guys!]" He started up, before realizing that the rest of his crew had been pacified; three of them were still standing by the time he saw them, though their unconsciousness made them collapse along with the rest. He immediately tensed up, taking aim with his rifle. Through his red dot sight, he could make out several new, smaller machines lying on the ground; when he applied an infrared vision filter to his helmet's visor, he saw that they were producing a lot of thermal energy and a faint heat line from one to the other can be seen.   
"Howdy, cowboy." Yada's voice produced.  
The soldier immediately opened fire above the SUV from which the projection could be heard, only to hit nothing but air, for it came from another Throw Voice that was lodged to the vehicle's roof.  
Yada herself appeared from behind the front of the vehicle, collapsible baton in hand. She forehand-swung straight at the popliteal area of the man's legs, forcing him to kneel, and used her free hand to disarm the man and rip off his protective helmet. With his face now exposed, she then backhand-whacked him viciously, knocking him clean out.   
Yada put them all in cable ties and then went to the door, breaking it open with her baton. The two swings necessary, however, broke the top of the weapon off, causing her to discard it upon getting in. A brief glimpse of a wall map and a few flights of stairs later, the CFO made it to the main control room. "I'm in position, everyone. Looks like everything is functioning as typically; I'll make sure it stays that way." She declared.  
Kato gave quick glances to his dashboard-mounted computer as he tried to pinpoint Satoshi's location within the city. _Come on, my old Captain of mine. You know you want to put one over on me now. How can you do that without showing yourself to me?_ He thought to himself, before suddenly his terminal blinked. He quickly floated his eyes at it, seeing Satoshi flaunt a sunglasses-down taunt at a street camera while out of a vehicle. The next few images then show him get into a dark BMW G32. _Being quirky, are we?_ Kato grinned before tracing the camera's location and driving on over.  
It was not too far and not too long away, as Kato had reached the last known location and began running a track of the back-wheel's spinner to see where it went. But that is also what brings a decent surprise his way. _Oh? One large donut within the neighborhood?_ The CEO then looked up to his windshield, and once the traffic at the circle cleared, there he was. And he wasn't alone. _Davids too? And he's holding something._..   
Satoshi returned to having a very indifferent look on his face as he stared down his old boss. Kato couldn't quite maintain the same level of subtlety (assuming that is what it was). They both revved their engines with such intensity. And though the shared-gaze felt like an eternity, it was only all of three seconds, for the next instant produced a green light at the intersection for their street. At that moment, the ex-Captain produced an HK USP and fired straight into the air, alarming everyone else in the vicinity and causing them to run the opposite way screaming. Satoshi himself then began reversing at full speed, prompting Kato to hit the gas and give chase, seeing the duo then make a complete 180 to drive normally. "Everyone, I've got direct visual on Satoshi; Davids is with him. Nakajima and Kazuhiro are still M.I.A. for the rest of you?" Kato spoke to his bluetooth.  
"Certainly not here." Bellamy noted, finalizing the installation of the last trophy system necessary to fully protect his signal tower.   
"If he's here, he's playing hard to get with all of his playmates!" Kat quipped, hiding behind a cement barricade, awaiting the nearby sounds of Kingslayer footsteps. When they came close enough for her, she then pressed on her InReTs touchpad, which caused a series of concussive blasts to fire through the nearby building's windows, rendering them into many pieces of glass and sent four tightly-knit sentries flying into the parking lot on the far side. With them all falling on their faces limp and not getting back up immediately after, it's all but certain Kat installed a Stun-Net between the chassises of the two vehicles they've dropped between.  
"Easy enough to get all of their faces into the light on my end, but haven't found the snake-like, walking vain of humanity just yet." Miho asserted, with an unconscious man with a double-tap of Shock-Out rounds on his chest. She tosses the man's helmet and visor into a large mound before lobbing the Kingslayer himself into an even larger pyramid comprised of his cohorts. "He ought to show himself soon, if he really wants to stop us though; we've pretty much ensured the safety of the broadcasting spikes now." The Vice-Captain added on, looking up just as the last of her trophy systems reached the apex alongside its doubles.   
"Be wary. Nakajima certainly won't be making any mistakes after his many shortcomings as of late." Yada cautioned her team, while using her ViTAL in conjunction with InReTs to maintain a deep analysis of the power grid's controls, schematics, and status.  
"Guys!" Naoko spoke into her comms equipment. "We got a problem; the antinoise device has been successfully integrated, and I ran a small simulation of the broadcast to make sure it was functional. But the test failed because no private devices are connected to it." She described.  
"Meaning people's smartphones, TVs and whatnot are not connected to these towers. That's not good if they don't receive general protection from our three-towers distribution, which can arise if they're shielded in their heavily-insulated bathrooms or basements." Kato elaborated. "The Kingslayers must be using a specialized dirtbox to steal the attention away from us."  
Yada briefly looked up from her own tech with shock. "That's not good. We need to disable that device before the ghost plane arrives. But even if it only works while in the city, it could be hiding in trillions of places, and we're not with a lot of time." She forewarned.  
Kato's eyes then flickered. "That's why they took a spyplane... Earlier today. I'm chasing Satoshi and Davids right now because they have the dirtbox we're looking for!" He established.  
"With haste, Chairman! Please intercept them! We probably" Kat implored.  
"You got this, Kato-ani! Don't worry about anything else!" Miho encouraged her sworn brother.  
"You all can count on me. The Kingslayers and the Saviors both fall tonight." The Chairman upheld, pounding his gas pedal and pushing forward.  
_Wasn't he a robot just a day ago?_ Naoko cogitated while still actively concentrating on her work.  
_Didn't I not chastise him for unreliability some time back?_ Yada played around with another terminal to open up another sub-control room's file directory.  
_He's such a mystery... But a pleasant one at least._ They both concluded before fully committing to their own contributions.


	15. Idealistic Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ghost plane carrying the frequency that would activate the HYM Virus is almost over Geneva, just like the three gas rockets carrying the source medium! Can the KAM Team pull back from the brink and save the day for Switzerland?

As the Three Captains ensured the protection of the signal towers, Naoko tirelessly continued to identify the true HYM rockets amongst the guidance spread, Yada maintained the running configurations of the electric grid, and Kato pursued his former ally for the only other device capable of rendering their countermeasures null, the ghost plane persisted in its Euclidean-distance path to Geneva. Given its constant top speed, everyone there had only a little longer than fourteen minutes.  
_Okay..._ Yada thought to herself, backing away after completing the latest program-assisted execution of the plant's hardware. _Almost all configs now can run at max, multi-sourced power. Just need to get to the last one to complete-  
_But before she can complete that cogitation, a rumbling explosion shook her right out of it and into another.  
_What the Hell!?_ The CFO now wondered, before looking at her InReTs screen. The link status to four main power cells within the grid indicates a lethal disconnect, resulting in vastly-reduced output. She then took a look at a 3D wiremap of the vicinity built within her ViTAL holographic display; said power cells have been reduced to melted, jagged scrap metal and scattered, flying sparks. _Someone is disrupting the layout!_ She realized, taking her Hudson into her hands and proceeding towards the area. _This is okay; I can just edit the configuration to work with a few less ports and still provide the sufficient energy; that is what backups are for. But I cannot afford to let the Kingslayers destroy any more of them!_ She thought to herself as she approached the scene.   
Prudently checking every corner and alternate path she comes across, she treads her way towards the smoke and sparks. The arsonist is nowhere in sight, prompting her to turn on the vision faculties of her mask and goggles to locate them. But after fifteen seconds and some careful scoping, the CFO still couldn't yet locate her target.  
But that's okay... Because something located her.   
Yada's saw the thermal energy average scale of her infrared filter suddenly spike, and so she turns to her eight-o'clock flank (towards the sound), and finds the reason why: a rocket-propelled grenade, rapidly closing in on her. Luckily by instinct and with her free hand already flirting with the flap, Yada quickly scoured her belt-bag and pulls out some Stun-Net nodes, throwing them as far as she could and then throwing up her Ballistic Shield to cover her upper body. The resulting electricity causes the explosive to detonate prematurely, but the impact blast still sends Yada flying.  
Somewhere between takeoff, flight, and a rolling landing into the back alley of a sub-control room, the CFO lost her Hudson H9, but that was hardly her worst concern. Seconds afterwards, she assesses the damage following shaking her head back into place, and finds that her AtTac suit's main defenses have been heavily compromised, and her primary communications disrupted. Yada doesn't get too much time to lament her losses, however, as she then hears the sounds of rapid charging onto the scene, and knows whoever stunned her is coming to finish the job. Hoping to regain the advantage, she flees the scene, entering the building in a flash and immediately locating hiding spots.  
Following her was only one slamming door which very quickly closed up. If that wasn't so implicative, only a couple footsteps could be heard at a time from Yada's point of view. _What the? Is there really only one person gunning for me? One person that did all of this damage?_ She cogitated. With the latter in mind, she did not yet dare to confirm her beliefs, out of preoccupation that they could pinpoint her too.  
"I know you're in here...!" A familiar tone announced.   
_Nakajima..._ She grit her teeth silently. She then went to her InReTs screen and PM'ed her knowledge of the Kingslayers' Field Commander's location. She then continued to ease in and out of cover in response to her enemy's investigative movements. When she lures the cat-and-mouse game to the second floor, she awaits the tactlight rays to appear from around two corners to produce a Cold Steel Black Sable foldout tactical knife and holds it to her chest. She makes one more journey to a perfect ambush spot, having set up a Throw Voice mechanism across the hall from her. She sees Nakajima come into view and activates it, causing her footsteps to be heard from afar. He is immediately alerted to the presence and looks that way momentarily, urging Yada to jump out in an aerial assassination attempt.   
However... Nakajima wouldn't succumb so easily. For he turned around immediately afterwards, seeing Yada flying towards his back and shooting her way. Surprised by the counterattack, she throws her arms before her face again, neglecting her attack entirely (fortunately, all of the bullets miss her). She makes a rolling landing over Nakajima's head and immediately goes to close the distance, eliminating the Beretta 92 Elite II's advantage. Nakajima pulls back from an initial horizontal slash and straightens out his gun arm to take aim. The CFO quickly pivots and laminates herself with her foe, quickly pressing the load button, causing the ammunition to the pistol to fall out of the well. That was about all she could muster, however, as Nakajima then curled his free arm across her head and whips it aside, causing Yada to fly over to the side. Nakajima then goes for the discarded magazine, but a well-timed, well-aimed throw of one of Yada's own (empty) magazines knocked the cartridges away.   
"You know, I'm going to enjoy this greatly." Nakajima noted as he slowly rose up, briefly looking at his empty Beretta and tossing it way rather indifferently. He then pulled out his SOG Seal Pup Elite fixed tactical knife from a safe distance, watching Yada rise back to her feet and CQC stance, her own dagger still in hand. "I agree wholeheartedly with Satoshi; it's people like you that make the ones capable of great change like Kato unable to see their greatest achievements through. What's the point in overseeing evolution if you don't get to instill it yourselves on your own whims?" He wondered. "Afraid of being in charge of your own destinies?"  
"You confuse inaction with lack of conviction. Fatally. Yeah, they can coincide at times, but just because one doesn't act on dramatic ploys doesn't mean they don't have the heart to do what's right the way they want to." Yada then grew a little more needled at Nakajima. "And plus, what do you know about being in charge of destiny? You're just a spoiled brat that never once felt like he was not in control. So let me say - since you're not in control at all, somebody really needs to shut you up!" She concluded, charging at him with her knife in icepick grip.   
  
**-Ryu Ga Gotoku 2 KIWAMI's OST "Clan Battle" plays.-  
**

# 矢田 桃花 **VS中島誠四郎  
**

## Touka Yada; CFO of Kato Arms Manufacturing

### "I've got a left hook with your name on it."

## VS

## Seishiro Nakajima; Field Leader of the Kingslayers

### "You should know your place, woman."

  
Yada is again the first to charge into combat, closing the fray of the contest incredibly quickly with a dashing lunge of her weapon, which was rather seamlessly parried during a sidestep by Nakajima's own. Yada swiftly turned herself around to face him again, and they both confronted each other more slowly this time, testing each other with stray swipes and stabs, hoping that the other will slip up. Nakajima finds his chance for the initial advantage when he tricks Yada into believing he lost control of his knife when it clashes in a stereo-forehand collision. Instead of it flying out of his grip, however, the release was intentional, as the blade then spun along the width of his reverse palm, and the man's free left hand caught it on the way up the other side. Yada could not react before Nakajima gave her a sliding gash forward across her own knife arm.  
The lady backs away a bit before parrying an overhead slash by Nakajima, which the latter soon transitions into a stab for one of her eyes. She bobs her head just out of the way of that, and then ducks completely to avoid the backhand swing tracking it. While lowered, she then gave a quick shoulder check to Nakajima's stomach, pushing him back a tad. Yada tried for his lower limbs, starting with an instep stab, which Nakajima hastily gets his foot out of the way of. She spins right through the failed attempt (which also lets her evade a low backhand slash that would have scalped her) for a forehanded, icepick swipe at his knees, which he backs away from to avoid. Yada rises back to standing, seeing Nakajima's forehand, hammer slash at face-level and uses her free hand to lift it over her head and twirling behind it.  
Her attempt to recompense her arm cut with one in kind gets prevented by Nakajima throwing a reverse elbow with his free arm, which Yada puts up a Keysi guard to nullify. Nakajima then spins the other way, with his blade now in icepick grip and in a pressing stab position for Yada's throat. The block the young lady had made allowed her to achieve an identical stance very soon afterwards, and so they both clash forearms; those limbs being the only things keeping either weapon tips from digging into the other's larynxes. After a few seconds in this test of strength, Nakajima decides to play chess first yet again, using his free arm to pull back on Yada's ponytail. The painful distraction was for just a moment, but it was enough for the man to overpower his opponent and push forward. Thankfully, the lady realizes this and spins out of the exchange, receiving a grazing cut on the far side of the neck instead. Seeing that he didn't anticipate such a transition, she then punts his calves from underneath him, forcing him to spin out in the air and release her mane. When they returned to staring each other down just out of reach, Yada assessed the damage; a mostly superficial cut at her throat's side. But worse than that, Nakajima showed some delight at holding onto a couple, pulled strands of her hair and the cuff that kept it up. Realizing the unforgivable act he's done (especially when he merely tosses them aside), she grows more ticked than ever.  
  
Meanwhile, Miho witnessed some Kingslayers approaching, unwary to her exact presence. When she felt it best, she sprang out of cover quickly and pushed one unsuspecting soldier into his cohort's side, forcing them to stumble over. With them reeling, she then slammed both of their heads together, creating craters in their helmets. Miho senses the arrival of another duo from around the corner, so she tosses one violently towards a wall of cemented concrete blocks (as if he wasn't already fully knocked-out already). She then lifts the other man up like a huge lumber log and waits until they cross the edge. At that point, she boots the closer enemy's Troy M7A1 barrel out of the way and then spins, causing the mandhandled's heels to smash into the first's face. Miho then backflips over the falling first, while still carrying the unconscious one. This modified moonsault press absolutely squished the other last oncomer like a bottom flapjack. The immediate prone-positioning also aided her in avoiding suppressive fire from some afar shooters, who then exposed their locations for Miho to snipe them out with her UCP.  
Kat used her diminutive form to avoid a hook and back-elbow, locking in cable ties to his wrists as they came close to her face. With him now restrained from behind, she then pushed her back to him, using Vacuum Carry to keep him pinned there. This served her well for the tactical advantage, with her Ballistic Shield and human shield defending half of her degrees, allowing her to focus only on the other half. Roughly ten gunners hesitated before being put down as a result of the unique find. Kat then threw her SMG above her twice, whacking the top of the metal weight repeatedly onto the bound man from behind, jolting his mind to sleep. He finally is allowed to collapse when the Swede deactivates the zero-point energy adapter to proceed.  
Kato was still driving his dual-rear-wheeled Ford pickup wildly after Satoshi and Davids. Despite his best efforts however, the smaller and lighter BMW sedan driven by the latter continues to stay ahead. And their earlier research on the roads of Geneva have been paying off really well, as they are seamlessly running through the more narrow S and Z-curves of the city that Kato's vehicle could not pass through unscathed. To say that Kato had caused a couple-thousand francs in property/collateral damage would be an understatement.  
But that's hardly the biggest of the CEO's worries, as a minute into the pursuit, the two cars get onto the famous straightway that is Rue du Rhone. And that is right about the time when a dozen other vehicles, all with the same carbon-black color scheme, arrive. _Ah... The final Kingslayer garrison has showed itself in a desperate bid to stop me._ Kato cogitated as they came into view.  
  
Back at Geneva's power grid, Yada begins employing more liberal use of her legs, faking a couple knife attacks with a few low, but powerful roundhouse kicks. Nakajima wasn't ready for the first three, two of which were consecutive to his right knee, and weakened his free-hand block of her overhead sufficiently to lash his clavicle before being pushed away. Now Nakajima wanted to recoup his loss with another neck-level cut, but Yada keeps it from reaching her with a raised knee pushing against his chest. Following the failed attempt and overswing, he then takes her leg into his free-arm hold to close the gap and then inverts his motion, now going for a backhand swipe. This played right into Yada's plans, however, as she hooked his exposed ribcage, leaving him briefly with no energy and rendering the succeeding attack moot. She then latched her instep to the close inner thigh of Nakajima while it was still forcibly hoisted up, and then straightened her leg out, tripping Nakajima up anew; an inverse arm wringer with the man's own knife hand confirmed his supine grounding.  
Once he gets back up, Yada tries for a leaping spinning hook kick, which Nakajima keeps crouched to avoid. Upon landing, both simultaneously go for the waist-level stab. Great minds seem to think alike more than once, as they predicted the mirroring of their moves and push against each other's wrists to intercept imminent penetration. Yada then lifts up a knee and rams it into the pommel of her foldout knife, giving her the extra strength to puncture Nakajima's torso, as he grunts in response. When the blade comes back out and at the same stalemate, she then pulls it back and lobs it over her back. Nakajima sees the briefly unarmed opportunity and breaks his knife arm free from the grasp so that he can go for a eye-level forehand slash. Yada moves in tandem to its circular motion while ducking, guiding the point of the blade to stab Nakajima's own chest a couple centimeters, while she ends up right in front of his back. By this point, her foldout was just above her, so she caught it with her right hand and went for the backhand slash at his throat; Nakajima recovered from the shock of self-harm and blocked.  
Having had enough, Nakajima shows his frustration as he and Yada again size each other up. He pulls back from Yada's first chest-level swipe and then pushes away her follow-up bolo swing and tries for the icepick stab to the throat. Yada grabs his forearm with her free hand to keep it within a few inches from her, and gets her knife hand back into a load for a lunge from below, but suddenly the angling of Nakajima's forearm changes, resulting in it having less leverage and therefore strength. This is because the man intends to sidestep the plexus-level stab while not relinquishing his own pierce, and so he flanks the lady and ends up behind her now. The repositioning now allows him to pull his knife towards Yada, giving him even greater clout, as she realized when she was vocally expressing more effort to resist. Adding to the surprising transition, and Yada's trachea was a mere centimeter away from the fixed blade's tip.  
  
Three cars of Kingslayers arrived at the news broadcasting station, finding that the source of the hacks on their projectiles' guidance chips was taking place there. They quickly scoped out the area with their tactlights, pulling out power cords and sabotaging ethernet cables as quietly as they could. This was crucial to them finding out where Naoko was, as they could hear typing on a keyboard as they approached the Northern labs on the second floor. They silently signal to each other to converge up and concentrate on the origin.  
Emphasis on where Naoko "was", however.  
As soon as the first three all took aim at the next corridor where the clacking sounds were audible, they found no souls about. When they went to investigate further, though, a horizontal Stun-Net planted within the corridor shuts them all down as they crash onto the floor. The rest of the assault party on the floor is surprised and begin frantically looking around, only to be put down just as easily, when the tiled ceiling pieces suddenly break, dropping small speakers into strings that produce frequencies that force brains to shut down in mere seconds. The rest on this floor fall victim to it, and in turn fall onto their backs instantly afterwards.   
Naoko broke through some of the tiles herself and dropped down. Just as she made a seamless landing, her InReTs screen strobed an alerting message. By observance, the Agent could see that her search algorithm has identified one of the three Hym-filled rockets. Gleefully, she then reprogrammed the coordinates back to the lake. _Great. Now just to find the other two... Before the next eight minutes pass. And that the broadcast can be run. Unless, of course-  
_Before Naoko could conclude her thought, all of the lights and monitors cease illuminating the premises.  
_Unless they went into the main power controls in this station!_ Naoko sighed. _Not to worry... Just get it back on before the other two rockets come! In eight minutes! You can do this, Naoko! Think not of the pressure any longer!_ Naoko assured herself, before pulling back the slide on her Ninety2 Beretta and ran on further.  
Following a large right turn, two Kingslayer SUVs attempted to pinch Kato and form a chassis sandwich, just as they approached a barricaded fork in the streets (of which Satoshi and Davids took to the right). Knowing their intent, Kato denies them their objective when he pulled on a secondary lever close to the glove compartment, which caused the right-side of the chassis to spring out like with the Naples APC. The vehicle on that adjacent side ricochets away and crashes headlong into the reinforced light-pole moments later. Kato then begins leaning towards the right, knowing the other SUV will continue his push, causing him to run right into the arrowhead-shaped blockade instead. Kato doesn't forget about the idea they had in mind as the chase continued, however - only the poor execution. Which is why when one other like automobile comes close to face-level to take aim at him, Kato gives him a push too, and theSUV veers off to collide with a line of parallel-parked cars.  
One thing that does end up surprising Kato during the chase was planted snipers on two close rooftops who lit his vehicle up as he drove into a large, opulent intersection after his Ex-Captain. The integrity of the windshield soon crumbles, forcing the Chairman to get out of the driver's seat... While it is still in quick motion?!  
  
After Yada forces herself and Nakajima to back up slightly to gain more time from the neck-stab, she finally finds her chance and limbos underneath the loosened clinch. Nakajima learned his lesson from over-striking and so avoids puncturing himself again. Yada however, maintains wrist control as she falls to her knees and pulls him over for a miniature fireman's carry takeover, putting him onto his back. She quickly succeeds this grapple with another icepick downward stab, this time at the man's left eye. Nakajima blocks it before it can skewer him, and swiftly twists himself back to his knees to match Yada; they both then rise up in a tight clinch with their hands locked, preventing each other from slamming points into their foreheads. Yada twisted her wrist so that her blade curved inward before slicing into Nakajima's.   
Once Nakajima flinches in response, Yada seized the moment, favoring his still-raised weapon hand and leveraging it behind him, identical to a standing Anaconda Vice. Wrenching the resthold further causes him to back up to maintain proper standing, but also sacrifices his defense of stability, allowing Yada to heel-sweep him back down onto the ground. Once more she tried a downwards stab, this time to his chest and as he fell to maximize pressing advantage. But Nakajima knew that, and as he saw it fall with him, he bobbed his head out of the way. Upon her failing to impale him again, the man then stunned the woman with a palm strike to her chin, and then seizing her weapon hand's wrist, using both hands to swat the foldout knife out of her grasp. He then attempts a gut-level slash at Yada, who was still in a knee mount, which she releases to avoid the attack.  
With them now standing, Yada maintains a more defensive BJJ stance, attempting several times to disarm Nakajima, such as with a simultaneous parry and riposte, and then with a hammerlock respectively. However, both tries were punished by disrupting, clubbing blows to reject the grapples. The latest effort was an overswing punish into a straightjacket, but Nakajima prevents her from coming too close behind him to keep it firmly wrenched, and ends it entirely by throwing a back kick. The attack sends the CFO reeling back to the far wall; the bookshelf of the far wall, to be exact. Two textbooks falling next to her flanks has her realize this, and she immediately feels behind her in search of a hardcover. The lady finds one just before Nakajima closes in, with a kesagiri cut from his fixed blade. It embeds lightly into one of the wooden shelves when she sidesteps, surprising him long enough for Yada to slam his head onto the structure above. She then attempts to bring own the entire piece of heavy furniture on top of him, but he rolls away just in time to evade it.  
  
Kat worriedly looks at her drying-out ammunition, finding that she only has one full, spare magazine left for her SMG. Nevertheless she continues one, especially after she finds that some of the straggling mercenaries are intending to shoot the antennae since their other weapons are mitigated by the trophy systems applied to its structure. The Swede mustered more courage and scatter-threw several nine-bang grenades across several levels of horizontal distances; the end result being that the entire immediate vicinity was carpeted with blinding strobe lights, piercing the advanced brightness protection of even the prepared Kingslayers' masks. Kat herself put on Night-Vision and X-Ray filtering to locate everyone to be Shocked-Out. The flashbang effect wore off for the remaining six Kingslayers about a dozen seconds later, and when they stood out of cover, Kat again had to sit tight behind some barricades.  
Naoko gave a Ballistic-Shield bash to a lone Kingslayer, forcing him to show his back. She then hooked up a Wire Wrest to his tactical belt and then then ran back with the other hook towards the staircase with open railing, and dropkicked through it, using her own momentum to force the Kingslayer's back into the metal cripplingly. Naoko's cable then swung her into the last of a line-formation crew on the first floor. Before they could turn around to fire, Naoko barrel-rolled with this merc behind cover and knocking him out with a 12-6 elbow to the forehead after exposing his face. She then stuck to the ceiling just before the rest came into the corridor, wherein she proceeded to drop down right in front of the leader, palm-slapping a Shock-Disk onto his lightly-layered neck. She then slipped something into his belt and then shoulder-checked the soldier into his cohorts before running the opposite way, cutting a corner just before it detonates with arcs of high-voltage electricity flying just out of the way.  
From the snipers' point-of-view, the Ford pickup drove without an operator, dumbfounding the lot of them as it flawlessly continued chase after Satoshi. What they couldn't see was that Kato practically glued himself to the far side of the truck's chassis, navigating the semi-APC to continue the game of cat and mouse. When one Kingslayer sedan came close to squish Kato, the latter leaps off and onto his roof instead. The armed passengers see this and begin producing their firearms from out the windows, arching towards the surfing Chairman. The latter windmill-kicks them all out of aim, with the left-side passenger even losing grip of his Five-seveN. Kato then slipped to the other side, seizing the right-side passenger's still exposed forearm and pulled out, causing his entire upper body to hang out the window. The shotgun-seater's arm was dislocated at the elbow when he tried to wring his aim back over there. Kato then ran back up to the roof and jumped onto the car's hood, where he had clear of the front tires and knifed them. Kato then jumped to the next nearby sedan before the first car flipped over.   
As Kato attacked this one from the back windshield, he saw hand movements within Satoshi's BMW. More specifically, a handover of what looks to be the disc launcher that disabled one of their trucks earlier. The CEO realizes that his pickup truck is next and he will soon be out of a proper transport. As such, he runs up to the front, while he cognitively signals his InReTs to deactivate the magnetic rigging of the payload in the trunk - the Jumper motorcycle! A Shock-Disk to the driver and another leap later, and the car turned out of view. Davids took aim with the launcher and successfully got the explosive disk to latch onto the undercarriage. But just before it disabled the truck, the two-wheeler rolled out, under RC control by Kato, and kept steady so that the aforementioned leap allowed him to land onto its seat properly.   
  
Back to the contest at the backup control room, Yada parries and blocks many of Nakajima's succeeding attacks, jabbing its spine into his forearm when he goes for a forehand swipe, and a backhand smack with full-spinning momentum by ducking underneath a horizontal cut. The hardcover also gave additional impact when she then delivered a forearm smash to it, rocking the man's liver. Nakajima then tries for a cross-lunge to Yada's temple, which she pivots away to end up behind his arm. He tries for the backhand stroke again, which she Dempsey Rolls underneath, seeing his exposed, front left foot mid-motion and jamming her tome right on top of it. Nakajima yells at his mushed toes, and goes for another stab. Yada performs a spin juke to evade it, and with that centripetal force, she magnifies her backhand swing of the book into the man's right knee, making him cry out again.   
Nakajima tries a surprise with a left hook, which fails as Yada pulled back from, and then tries for an overhead stab, which was blocked with a raised hardcover spine trapping his attacking wrist. Nakajima lets the blade fall past the guard so that he can claim it with his left hand down below, but Yada's backhanded flick of the literature to his face was quicker than his postscript, which stopped it dead. As he backed up reactively, Yada threw caution briefly to the wind and threw a high knee with the book in front, crashing it into his sternum. The CFO then went low one last time to backhand the cover into his ribcage.   
The man becomes angered again and tries for his next overhead cut. Yada sidesteps it so that the blade falls behind her back. Before he could retract it, Yada's far arm makes a keyhole that traps his wrist; the book keeps him from angling the dagger to make any stray cuts like Yada did earlier. With him trapped, Yada gave a reverse elbow thrust to his cheek, and then whipped her hand behind his head and pulled back on his bangs - payback for the past unforgivable act. She then kicked into both of his popliteals, forcing him to fall over while his constricted arm remained where it were. As a result, the tendons overstretched, and Nakajima instinctively let go of the weapon; Yada slid it with her foot away from the contest when it clanked onto the ground. Realizing he is once more at a disadvantage, he throws two front kicks from his supine position at her chest; Yada's guard made them ineffectual, but they provided him with enough time to roll back to his feet and run off. Yada realizes his escape, drops her improvised, weaponized textbook and gives pursuit.  
  
Kat's earlier attempt to steal one Kingslayer's Troy rifle results in her finding that it was slung across his torso. She gives him a low-blow kick and then hooks it so that said sling applied pressure to his neck instead of his shoulders, while seizing the assault rifle for her own use (mostly in the form of foot shots) as she dragged him about. When it too ran out, she went behind a wall with her victim, perusing his pouch for a spare magazine, and then hitting the man in the chin with the gun's stock before releasing the sling and allowing his slump body to collapse to the ground. _Okay... This is it. Just as I had sworn to do - going down in the name of justice._ She then made the Kato Alliance saluting gesture and sprang out with an iron-tight lockdown through her iron sights.  
But all that it showed for her was... Carnage.  
Kat looked up in curiosity upon finding that Kingslayers were hung to dry on tree branches, left upside down, and otherwise no longer an issue.  
"You good?" Miho requested confirmation, holding two of the mercs in the same sleeper clinch. She then rammed the barrel of her UCP into the closer one's right knee, nudging it to laminate with his colleagues', and then fired, dislocating them both in a single shot. Bellamy was similarly in the distance, tending to one last Kingslayer with a V finger snap. Before punting them in the face.  
Kat sighed a breath of relief. "I had that." She quipped before refocusing. "I take it your ends are all good?"  
"Nobody else came for them, at least." Bellamy slung his assault rifle behind.  
"Now it's all on Kato and his peers." Miho looked to the central section of the city, where the rest of the fire was going down.  
Kato sees that a coupe is rapidly closing in on him with drive-by fire, so he uses the next turn to throw them off; first by accelerating into it and cutting tightly so that he practically hugged the building corner. The car opted to follow the path, only to fall for Kato's Jumper... Falling straight onto their windshield, having slowed down just enough to meet them there. The impact was followed by a double tap to the driver, which permanently disabled the vehicle, and Kato drove on after Satoshi.  
Cutting two corners later, Kato sees the largest obstacle yet - Satoshi's BMW drives past an 18-wheeler truck that obstructs the road, with gunners standing on top of its load. Kato could also see from the several intersections passing by that reinforcement vans were going to pin him in the last block. The Chairman therefore opts to speed up considerably, and at the last ten meters, tilts over so that the Jumper-cycle laid on its side and slid through the narrow opening of the truck. Kato stayed on two feet with a quick sprint that was immediately followed by a Wire Wrest that he shot towards the corner of the building right past the obstruction. The cable's subsequent retraction shot him high into the air, and clearing the vehicle entirely, but not before punting one of the Kingslayers in the face and then dropping a concussive explosive where he stood, which sent the rest off the vehicle as well. Kato let go of the line launcher and went into wingsuit mode to glide back onto the seat of the two-wheeler, which was RC-controlled to return back to upright standing.   
One last backup vehicle chased the CEO in a desperate bid to intercept him before he got to Satoshi. Kato dealt with this one by firing another Wire Wrest that laid low horizontally and made a tripwire between the brick wall on its left... And a metal trashbin on the right. It was pretty clear to everyone who saw it that the berlinetta could dislodge the obstacle to continue its line, but the cable didn't snap, and since the wall similarly wouldn't give, the car was locked in a centripetal turn that launched him straight off the intended road and into a deli takeout shop.  
With all of the Kingslayers on her end incapacitated too, Naoko had free rein to push back up the power lever to restore current in the broadcast station. She then ran back up to her working monitor on the second floor to ensure the veracity of the signal configuration.  
  
The chase was also still on for Yada, who follows Nakajima back to the main building. The man slams the strong door to the room just before the main control room to buy himself some time. Yada attempts some push kicks to boot the door open (hearing faint shattering noises in the meantime), but then uses her Ballistic Shield's edge as a leverage point to break the manual lock on the door. Upon stepping in, she is almost greeted by a neck-level swing... From a fireaxe, no less! Yada throws herself back into the secondary lobby to let the weapon's weight slam into the door's sill; she tries to get back into the fray while it is stuck, but Nakajima's push kick keeps her away until he pulls it out.   
Attempts to pry his hands free from this weapon proved similarly fruitless to earlier, with Nakajima giving headbutts and handle-checks to dissuade them. He also uses the handle to briefly strangle her when she gets caught on the inside of a haymaker sweep, taking her down supine with it and penalty kicking her plexus when she tries to immediately get back up. This sets up an overhead slam of his axe, to split Yada's head in two. Luckily, Yada barrel-rolled out the other way to avoid it. She promptly rises to her feet again and front kicks him, hoping it will take him away from the oversized weapon, but he maintains a grip and shoulder-checks Yada's chin when she gets closer. Yada assesses the latest damage as she backs away from Nakajima, who is closing in with the two-hander. He makes a few feints, hoping to make Yada slip up when he knows that his own mess-up could be very costly. A dominant hand-switch proved to not be the right moment to strike for Yada, as she blocked the pommel thrust with her open hand and gripped it, but his knee lift into her forearm made her release it. This also gave him some extra distance to straighten his leg with a big boot to her chest, pushing her into the tiled back and prepare one more powerful swing. Yada sees it and rolls past Nakajima to avoid the attack entirely. By that point, Nakajima couldn't stop his attack and it embeds itself much more deeply into the tiled wall.  
Nakajima thought little of its integrity until he tried to one-pull it out, and failing. He would not have time to voluntarily redirect his energy, however, as Yada came in with a 540 kick to his temple that puts him onto the floor once more. The man, now completely unarmed, found himself with very few options, trying for a rising straight that was easily telegraphed by his opponent and converted into a crossface chickenwing, while he is facing the ground and Yada on the rear mount. In the midst of strain, he happens to find himself close to the secluded underbelly of a mechanic's desk, whose discarded contents included a hand-and-a-half pipe wrench. He used his free arm to claim it and swung behind him, hitting Yada on her upper back and forcing her to relinquish the hold. While the lady was still reeling, he then swung horizontally backhanded, smacking her on the cheek and sending her across the room; her subsequent reactions show her to be almost out of it.  
Nakajima blows some blood out of both of his nostrils before walking up to her still-prone body, playfully tapping the weight of the wrench on his open palm. It looked like victory was within his grasp and he raises the improvised weapon high for the final smash. But hearing the nearby winds compensate for his fast motions made Yada's assassin instincts flare up and she looked back at Nakajima with pure bloodlust. A slight barrel-roll aside evades the damage, and a side kick from her position pushes him back enough for her to get up. The man then went for another forehand swipe to put her down, but Yada blocked it and set up a triangular hurricanrana that was instantly followed by a figure four headscissor while his weapon arm was smushed to his close ear that aided in her compression of his larynx - a rolling triangle choke. Nakajima regains brace positioning after a dozen seconds struggling, allowing him to hoist her up in a powerbomb attempt. Before he can slam her back down, however, Yada then pivots around, cringing the arm and forcing Nakajima to let go of the wrench. She briefly foregoes it in favor of twisting over to put the man on his back and goes for a thoroughly sadistic move - first her right hand kept his right arm outstretched, then her left hand made a tight pinch by clutching her right instep over his trachea. She reinstated the figure four by tucking her right toes-area into her left knee, and then moved her right hand to right behind the nape. Once all of these conditions were met, Yada had a helpless Nakajima locked into a Pentagram Choke. His ineffectual flailing gagging only encouraged her to keep it locked in, until eventually he stopped. Yada maintains slight pressure for the next ten seconds to ensure he was truly out.  
  
-OST ends.-  
  
After ending the submission, she then takes a Wire Wrest from behind her, and embeds one of the titanium hooks into his ankle, waking him up as the other hook shot to the ceiling and left him suspended upside down. She then used some engineering-related cable ties to restrain his limbs, with a normal chain-linking for his ankles. His wrists on the other hand...  
As she returned to right in front of Nakajima, it could be seen that his right cuff's plastic was hooked to a metal pin, and the fragmentation grenade it belonged was attached to his left. Again out of spite, Yada aggressively pulled on his hair to bring him to her face. "I won't kill you, Nakajima. As much as I would like to. Because the world, new or old, must be built with a level of mercy and compassion, no matter which method is taken. Besides, a couple good people have shown me and many others how to choose our fates, so I'm showing you your choice. It will be your choice now to let go. Or suffer the consequences." She declared before giving him the middle finger and proceeding back slowly to the main control room. Nakajima himself was silently, but expressively mortified at his shocking defeat.  
Elsewhere, Naoko had returned to working terminal, seeing that the time to fire off the antinoise machine was rapidly approaching, but tens of thousands of personal, private signal devices were still usurped from the broadcast towers. _Come on, Kato! Get that dirtbox!_ The Agent cogitated, as she also reprogrammed the second identified HYM missile into the lake.  
Kato follows Satoshi and Davids past another corner, and the former sees an identical BMW within catching distance... Which means there was a rat to smell. As Kato closed the gap, he then realized that certain smears and cuts were missing from this vehicle. That was when lights flared up right behind him; Satoshi used RC controls and concealed himself as a parker to trick him! At top acceleration, Satoshi then rammed Kato's back tire, crippling the motorcycle and sending Kato flying behind the car.  
Davids frantically looked back, hoping to find the Chairman lying on the ground somewhere, but the street, having lost power output due to Nakajima's efforts, made it too opaquely obscure to see through. "Where is he? Is he dead?" He questioned.  
"I'm not keen on finding out; the dirtbox is what matters, right?" The Ex-Captain reminded. Davids reluctantly agreed and turned his attention back to the front of the car.  
Yada slammed down her ViTAL device one more time to gain an on-board manual on how to reconnect the power cells to the grid and make sure the signal towers could adequately supplant the HYM wavelength. Her InReTs screen showed only two and a half minutes remaining on the clock when she was only midway through, but she battled through the pressure and with ninety seconds left, the power grid retained optimal output. _Everyone!_ Yada spoke to her comms system. _Power's good. You see it, Naoko?  
I see it, Yada. Great work._ Naoko ran a CLI command to show the system specs, and saw normal settings. _Miho and the other Captains have the towers on lockdown, and the final missile will be landing in the Lac just a couple kilometers shy of the city. But the plane is almost upon us, and I don't have smartphones and smartTV authority yet!_ She informed.  
_Not good. Kato! Status!_ Yada implored for an update.  
_On top of it._ Kato stated, as he hung to the trunk of the BMW sedan at a blindspot. _My InReTs screen indicates Satoshi will be driving by the Geneva World Stadium. Yada - wire a 400% output into the district it's in on my mark.  
Four-hundred?! You want a flashbang, Kato? _The CFO reinterpreted.  
 _Exactly. On my mark._ The Chairman confirmed, as he took out one more Wire Wrest.  
_Alright..._ Yada looked to her guide again to make sure she did it right.  
Naoko saw that the final missile became an instant geyser instead, and saw a minute left before the spyplane was over Geneva. She hovered her hand over the enter key on the terminal connected to the necessary chassis.  
Kato looked over the BMW's side slowly, ensuring that the mirror sees as little of his frame as possible. This also gave him a quick view of what's coming up; the notable intersection between Rue de Centenaire and Avenue Francois; of which the football arena was visible on its horizon. _One. Two. Yada now!_ He ordered.  
Yada was just a couple key-presses away, followed by a clockwise dial tilt, and finally a slam of the power lever. _There!_ She exclaimed.  
Suddenly, the lights that illuminated the front section of the amphitheater flared up significantly. Ramped up by the fact that it was nighttime, and the outburst was nothing short of a sudden break of dawn for anyone nearby.  
Unfortunately for Satoshi and Davids, that included them, who were briefly blinded by the massive amount of lux. Kato, whose goggles provided sufficient protection by such piercing light, crawled along the chassis to the left back wheel and skewered it with his Microtech Troodon OTF knife. The BMW naturally veered out of control and overturned, ending up off the road and initiating a hyper-rollover sequence. Knowing that he still needed to stick with the vehicle to locate the dirtbox in case it wasn't already destroyed, he released EM-Traverse of the vehicle and resolved to drag along with the Wire Wrest latching to its hull. But despite him extending the cable in response to its flips, Kato was launched up regardless, smashing through the curtain wall alongside the four-wheeler and ending up inside the ticket-gate lobby of the stadium.   
Bellamy drove the female KA Captains in a as fast as he could towards Kato's current location.  
"Forty-five seconds..." Kat acknowledged on her InReTs screen, worriedly looking over to Miho, who nodded back to her with assurance that all will be okay. It seemed to do the trick, at least marginally.  
Kato shook himself back awake, on the ground surrounded by stray hull pieces and millions of glass shards. His suit's visual faculties disrupted by his current lack of true focus, he opts to collapse the construct, exposing his face to the elements, which was already decently bruised with all the accumulated damage up to that point in time. When he fully comes to, he sees the wreckage of the BMW G32, having been stopped by the far wall and turned upside down.  
Moments later, the front door to the vehicle is kicked open. Satoshi claws his way slowly out, bearing some cuts and other blemishes as a result of the rollover incident. The Ex-Captain struggles to get up, and briefly looks into the inside of where he just came from, seeing Davids mostly intact, albeit unconscious. As such he then looks over to Kato, who has risen up as well.  
Suddenly, the Chairman pulls one of his Kimbers on Satoshi. His aim no longer shaking from any factors.  
Satoshi takes the instant to process what is before him. "Ah. Is that loaded with lethal ammunition?"  
"Yes." The CEO ensured.  
"So I finally got through to you?"  
"Whatever you or anyone else did, if you wanted a more-ruthless me, you succeeded."  
"Couldn't you have transformed when it was the time that that was all I asked for?"  
"Dramatic examples bring dramatic changes, Satoshi.  
"Right..." Satoshi shrugged. "Well then, lay it on me." He finalized.  
Kato did not so much as flinch after the last sentence. And then he fired.  
The unmanned spyplane came over Geneva, and delivered a frequency-specific noise that reverberates across the city.


	16. Climatic Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank God I spelt the title right this time.
> 
> Did the HYM Virus take effect? Did Kato really just shoot and kill Satoshi? Is the Crisis put to bed, or just starting?

Nakajima was still left hung to dry from his ankle, as a new soul audibly steps up the stairs en route to the main control room.  
"My, ain't your smug self a sight for sore eyes..." A voice attempting to mimic a certain degree of aggression that's quite prevalent in someone who happened to look just like him.  
Elsewhere, Kato's Kimber 1911 smoked out of its nozzle after the trigger was pulled. Satoshi meanwhile looked rather indifferent. It can be rather difficult to emote when something so sudden as a gunshot happens, especially to the victims, who often take a moment before they collapse or illicit further reaction of the wound... But that wasn't it.  
Satoshi's gaze moved over to where he traced the ballistic trajectory; to the front of the BMW wreckage. Found there... Was the dirtbox!   
Naoko saw that tens of thousands of more private devices were connected to the radio frequency collector of the broadcast station and instantly pressed the key to broadcast the antinoise. This was done in 1.38 seconds before the spyplane went over the center of the city.  
The ghosting aircraft, as intended, was still able to deliver its crippling noise, of which lightly damaged the eardrums of everyone, including Kat, Miho, and Bellamy. But after it died down, Kat took to a specially-modified monocle and looked at Miho across the vehicle. Though the composition of the HYM Virus was still within her and Bellamy, the frequency has not manipulated its formation at all, and no echoing wavelength could be found channeled within. "Everyone... Our plan worked." The Swede acknowledged with a grin.  
"Yes!!" Yada clasped her hands together euphorically, leaping up repeatedly. Naoko within the broadcast station couldn't help falling back into a swiveling chair and slouching back in relief. "Extraordinary work, everybody. With Geneva safe, all that's left is to seize Davids, and the Kingslayers will eventually fold. Kato should have him; we'll converge there." She reminded everyone before tidying up her station and regathering her equipment. After returning the VITaL back to her hands, however, she heard a stray click nearby. Her heart skipped a beat as she slowly floated her head back and saw a pistol barrel pointed point-blank at her head - A Kimber Rapide Mk. II, more specifically.   
"Don't be selling yourself short, Yada. It's not your style." Kazuhiro spoke, before smashing the grip of the pistol onto Yada's temple, knocking her down and swiftly following with a punt to her face that takes her out, evident by her KAM AtTac Suit dissipating. He stashes his handgun and takes her unconscious body onto his shoulder.  
"Hm. Lucky break, Kato?" Satoshi inferred from the sparking, disabled dirtbox as he returned attention to his opposer.  
"It was always the end goal." The Chairman confirmed, emptying his Kimber with a wrist flick and then tossing the empty pistol behind him. He did the same with the other Kimber handguns kept in his holsters, along with whatever gadgets he had left on his person.  
Satoshi hardly looks away from the staredown as he notices the CEO's paraphernalia lobbed aside. "You're very pissed with me, I see." He remarked on the observation.  
"Betrayal hurts, Satoshi. But what hurts more is that you didn't stop there." Kato replied.  
"Stop where?" He feigned ignorance.  
"At just hurting me. You also hurt Yada. A lot. Beyond the need to make it clear she couldn't stop you, at least on her own." The CEO elaborated.  
"Saviors and Kingslayers need to make points." Satoshi argued.  
"Couple that with the emotional trauma you caused Miho, Norio, and Naoko... Retribution is necessary." Kato asserted.   
"Come and give it a try." Satoshi threw his jacket away, and did the same with his T-shirt, revealing his left-sided Karajishi irezumi.  
Kato's psychic link to the suit collapsed the picoparticles, exposing the rest of Kato's upper body, namely his "Risen Samurai" irezumi.   
They both circle around, rolling shoulders and popping necks before simultaneously running in. Satoshi attempts to put him down with a left roundhouse kick to the face, so Kato limbo-slides underneath it, swiftly turning around and rising back to his feet after passing it by. Kato tries for an elbow uppercut when Satoshi comes close again, which the Ex-Captain sidesteps. When the latter ripostes with a left straight, which Kato pushes horizontally away, so that they now faced the same way. Kato tried for the instep heel sweep, which Satoshi lifts his front foot to avoid. He puts it immediately back down to perform his heel sweep kick, so the Chairman pulls back. Satoshi spins back to his two feet and lunges forward with his left shoulder; Kato matches it with a right, forming a perfectly inelastic collision. The larger Japanese man gives an extra nudge to get Kato off, and attempts a vicious right overhead. Kato answers with a left-handed high block, permitting both combatants to look each other in the eyes.  
  
-Ryu Ga Gotoku 6's OST "Fist Law" plays.-  
  


# 加藤和彦VS

## Kazuhiko Kato; The One Who Always Keeps His Word

### "We'll settle the score here."

## VS

## Satoshi Tsuchiya; The One Who Has a Blood Pact to His Duty

### "My ambition is only beginning..."

  
Instants after their forearms collided over their heads, Kato and Satoshi both opted to attack with open palms from their other upper limbs, matching hands in the middle that bounce them both away, setting up the fray for them to make their fighting stances (of which the Chairman opts to begin with "Tumbler" style). Kato telegraphs a right thrust kick oncoming from Satoshi and pushes it back down. When the Ex-Captain then tries for a right cross, the Chairman crouches low and lets the clenched fist fly past his clavicle. This is so that he rises his shoulder up straight into Satoshi's armpit and locks around his hips, preparing for a Judo ura nage. Satoshi, having anticipated the throwing technique, rejects it by laying down two 12-6 elbow smashes to the nape, lessening his foe's grip and allowing him to toss him away.  
Kato covers up on both sides while still shaken to absorb the next few straights and hooks his opponent tries. The latest attempt by Satoshi allows Kato to briefly put on the Thai Clinch, but little else, for the former bows his head almost immediately afterwards and reversed into a full shoulder throw. Satoshi similarly fails to capitalize when Kato delivers two grounded Pele kicks that make him back away. He does quickly rally for a stomp, but meets nothing but the ground just to the right of Kato's head after it bobbed away. At the same time, the latter also threw his hands up to clutch Satoshi by the waist, pulling him in for a pointed knee to the chest. This stunned him for the legscissor across his left arm and prying down, locking the larger opponent in the omoplata.  
Satoshi quickly falls forward and performs a reverse hitchhiker to twirl out of the submission and pack Kato's legs above his supine upper body. This gave him a small opening to throw a punch cleanly at his face, but Kato presses his lower limbs out to make the fist stop dead right before his face. Kato's boots then pressed onto Satoshi's chest and lifted him up for the helicopter armbar. But Satoshi remains standing after the leg collapse, roundhouse-kicking Kato's sides to force a let-go of his arm.  
Kato gets a couple elliptical kicks in to buy time for him to get up, though having to muster an X-block to counteract the flying knee; when the momentum of the blow dies down, Kato then takes Satoshi around his torso again while the leg was still up, creating a modified exploder suplex. The Ex-Soldier knew his old boss would go for that, however, and so he threw another 12-6 elbow aiming for Kato's crown. But Kato saw that coming too, and reversed it with a high block that straightened his arm out. Kato then turned over slightly, now ending up parallel to Satoshi again while still maintaining control of both limbs from the same side and lifted him in an Olympic Slam that bounced the older Japanese man's back on the tiled floor.  
Kato switched to "God Hand" style upon grounding and floats over for the full mount, laying down a pummel upon doing so. Satoshi forms a perfect bridge, compromising Kato's posture and rendering him vulnerable for the takeover out of the dominating position soon afterwards. When they both get back to his feet, Satoshi then tries for another cross, this time from his left. Kato answers by pushing it away from his centerline and backhand chopping the striker as close to his throat as he could. The latter staggers away a bit before launching a right hook, which is countered by a duck and an elbow to his kidney.  
Satoshi responds a little more wisely to this latest counterattack, reacting with a spinning backfist that makes Kato duck and turn away. Emphasis on "a little more," for this would usually mean he gains the space he needs to recover while the opponent waited before him. But for Kato, this meant that Kato let the attack fly past him, and so Satoshi's back was practically given to him. The Ex-Captain realizes this as he finished and threw a back kick to discourage capitalization, but was proactively kicked down before it could load up. Satoshi manages to block Kato's bell clap attempt, and immediately backing up quickly prevented Kato from lifting up his leg for push kicks to the spine. Satoshi then spins over for the Japanese arm drag, throwing Kato across the floor.  
Kato rises up with a windmill kick-set and and a haymaker, a la Kiryu's Rush stand-up move, to dissuade advancement on his person. Satoshi merely waits just outside of the strikes to throw his next straight... Which promptly collides with a reverse elbow swing with Kato's other arm. The Ex-Captain comes damn near close to breaking his front two knuckles, which he notices as his hand temporarily opens up completely limp. Kato capitalizes by dashing in and then jumping to his opponent's flank, blasting him with a checking Cobra Punch. He finally gets the bell clap he was looking for too, starting with when he forces Satoshi to cover up to his hooks and bow his head. The Chairman then delivers a devastating uppercut to the kidney, breaking Satoshi's defense... To the point that he could slip his own hands through it and pry both of the Ex-Soldier's arms down. From there, the stereo slap was customary, rocking the larger, older man's senses. Out of professional courtesy, Kato returns them to normal with a right uppercut to his chin.  
Satoshi is sent flying from the latest blow but hastily comes to again, spitting some blood out of his mouth and loading up for another round. This time he too begins targeting and neutralizing Kato's arms, finding a chance to bring down a forearm on Kato's tricep when it's coming in with a right bolo punch; the former finds a back knuckle to the face to work well in conjunction. Satoshi blocks a left cross with a sidestepping wrist clutch and twist, exposing the underside of his forearm to a long, gory clawing. Kato cuts the knot with a headbutt, using the time to assuage the multiple blading, but lets it go when Satoshi comes back in, behooving him to launch several jabs. The last of which is then caught into a hammerlock, that he stresses further before transitioning the limb into a standing waki gatame. Kato pivots and rises up to move his arm out of the way and face the same way as Satoshi on the wrong side of a short-arm, and deliver a spinning backfist with his other hand. The Ex-Captain responds by moving in too closely and catching the other tricep and guiding it with the first into a full Nelson.  
Kato is kept under lock due to Satoshi's key turning out to be headbutts to his exposed nape. He does finally manage to get out by switching to "B-Boy" style and jumping to clutch the Ex-Captain's waist with his legs, using his opponent's own body to twist out of the submission. This also brought momentum for a bodyscissor twist takedown, putting the older man on his back yet again. Kato doesn't relent, however, attempting to moonsault with two knees tucked so that they would slam right onto his foe's sternum. Fortunately for the latter, he too raised his knees up high, and the colliding joints bounce off with relatively no lasting impact on either set.  
Kato returns to the fray with a dash that soon translates to a swift slide, making Satoshi believe it will be an attack on his front leg, urging him to lift it up. Kato then brings all of his body's weight to his shoulders and pops up into a handstand, providing him with the elevation for an L-freeze kick to Satoshi's no-unprotected chin. Kato tilts himself back to an upright stance only to immediately side-flip into the air in response to Satoshi's instep sweep kick. Kato doesn't even land where he once was, either, for he dropped his knees onto both of Satoshi's clavicles, from which he proceeded to perform a very disorienting tilt-a-whirl into the bodyscissors Guillotine Choke.  
Satoshi attempts to break the crossed legs on his torso before the neck compression, digging the point of his left elbow into Kato's right thigh. The latter felt this excruciatingly and replies by sacrificing the crux of the hold to pry the arm back into a chickenwing. This would make it serve as leverage for a back roll while still controlling Satoshi (who was forced to roll forward subsequently) until they were both seated on the ground. Kato completed the transition by clasping his hands deeply on his enemy's nape and dug his right knee into their chest, while his left leg made vines with Satoshi's right to constrict its movement, creating a magnified can opener submission.   
The Ex-Captain attempts to escape by trying to stand up out of the hold using the one leg that wasn't trapped by Kato. The latter saw it coming and broke the hold for him; first by ramming Satoshi's head into his pointed knee (forcing him back supine), and then seizing said leg in between both of his own and pivoting, stressing the tendons of his opponent profusely. Satoshi sat up again in response to the painful stretch, prompting Kato to kick him back down with a low-angle spinning hook kick after letting the targeted leg fall. Satoshi finally thinks to lie down to avoid it, but Kato had a backup for that in the form of a moonsault double-foot-stomp immediately after concluding his revolution. The Ex-Captain rolled towards the Chairman's original position to evade that, which the latter realized mid-attack, for he then front-flipped upon landing for the somersault double-foot-stomp; this time he comes within a centimeter of crushing Satoshi's torso as the latter barrel-rolled back the way he came.   
Satoshi did know when and where Kato would land next due to his previous leap's calculated movements, and so he hammer-fisted Kato's popliteal at the right opportunity. This caused him to briefly limbo himself over, allowing Satoshi to bring his legs up and catch his foe's exposed throat and putting him into headscissor flat on the ground. Kato didn't waste any time getting out, but spared no amount of finesse while doing so, when he goes into a complete handstand and pivots his shoulders facing the same way as his face to prevent head strain, and also forcing his opponent to lose leverage for the compression, permitting the cranium to slip right out.   
The Ex-Soldier was left prone as a result of the reversal, and eats a somersault axe kick to the cheek when he turns around to face the Chairman. He manages to put up a Keysi block to nullify a front kick while Kato was supine, but also prompting him to roll away back to a three-point stance. With the fray reestablished, they both stand upright and circle around before closing in...  
Suddenly, as their wrists are about to clash, Satoshi then ran off. Towards the... Gift shop?  
Perplexed, Kato chases after him, but eats a varsity jacket when it is thrown into his face by his foe. While tossing it aside, he finds more things being propelled his way to impede him, from a container of injury ointment and disinfectant, to vials of cologned and even a megaphone. All of which was knocked aside by him to progress. But he doesn't manage to get to him before Satoshi claims what he was looking for - a can of white spray paint. He initially uses it like any other blunt weight, ramming it in lunges and with bottom smacks in between some other-hand punches, but meeting nothing but well-timed guards. Kato eventually hooked Satoshi's arms in between each other and went behind him afterwards to form the straightjacket. Seeing his nape exposed, he then tried for a headbutt at it, only to meet nothing with his forehead when Satoshi bows forward to eliminate the advantage and make Kato do the same.  
With him still facing the ground, Satoshi quickly slung one of his arms across his neck, putting him in a side headlock with his free limb. His other hand creeped up to Kato's struggling face, and sprayed the aerosol right into it. Fortunately, Kato firmly closed all of his orifices tightly to reduce its impact, but that still left him too blind to witness a running knee, followed by a spinning back kick.  
Kato fell onto the floor, where he was able to discern an earlier, knocked-aside t-shirt. He curls it all over his hand as Satoshi then seizes an engraved lighter and almost engulfs Kato in fire when he projects the spray paint into it to form a jury-rigged flamethrower. Hiding behind a set of clothing display tables, Kato finds the time to wipe his face clean, and then outgambits Satoshi in the high-low game, kicking aside the lighter and smacking Satoshi in the face with a coiled, whipped-up shirt. The reacting flinch caused the Ex-Captain to drop the aerosol and turn around.   
The CEO then allowed the shirt to uncoil, so that it could be used as a makeshift, opaque net that latched onto Satoshi's head. Temporarily without working eyes himself, he was unable to defend against a series of forearm smashes and 12-6 elbows to his temples and occipital lobe. The Ex-Captain was eventually able to escape this by ripping a large hole in the clothing, pushing Kato away to get time to recover. The latter comes back in with a flying high knee, but Satoshi blocks it, keeping the leg raised up and seizing his throat as well to slam Kato into the far wall, which happened to be a transparent fridge door leading to assorted lagers and energy drinks, in a spinebuster-like fashion. Upon impact, The Ex-Soldier kept the pressure with a tight left hook to stun Kato further, and then lifted him back towards the way they came, vying for the double-leg takedown. He would've been successful too, had it not been for his opponent anticipating it and sprawling to defend the brunt of the struggle, before pivoting out to his left while Satoshi was still charging forward, and delivering another knee lift. Satoshi manages to block it, but Kato sees the arm necessary to do so and pulls it in for a standing waki-gatame.  
The older man can feel his shoulder joints beginning to give and urgently realizes he needs to get out immediately, but lacks the leverage to escape the submission with it so firmly wrenched. He then notices a lone snow globe resting on a table nearby and grips it to be smashed over Kato's temple. He then goes into the shattered refrigerator to claim a beer bottle that he breaks on the metal. Seeing this, Kato takes more clothing to defend himself; this time employing a pair of polyester running shorts. His left hand balled up by the durable cloth, Kato seamlessly blocked all of the oncoming jagged edges before using it again like a rope and constricting a wrist with it. One terrible twist causes Satoshi to drop the improvised weapon. Satoshi short-arm clotheslines Kato to release himself from the tether.  
Kato and Satoshi's boxing game succeeding this turns suddenly bloody when it is revealed that Satoshi had taken up two souvenir lapel pins with their needles exposed in between his palms, piercing Kato's arm when it came up for a block to several overheads and bolos. Kato reacted to one stab a little too long, allowing Satoshi to crouch low and slice at his open, lower torso. He returns the favor when he pulls out a calligraphy pen from a display bucket, starting by blocking the left forehand forearm this time rather than the hand, and then ducking underneath the next needle hook from Satoshi's other hand, seeing the exposed waist and backhand stabbing into it.   
Kato then evaded two uppercut needles and then slid in too close for Satoshi to follow up with a backfist-like slash, taking the writing utensil to stab his shoulder. The Ex-Captain's flinching opened up his grip on that limb, allowing Kato to slap it out, and then do the same with the other one when it comes in an almost face-stab had it not been for a timely wrist and finger attack. Satoshi pulls out the pen and attempts a belly-to-back suplex on Kato, only for the latter to side-flipping out of the grip, landing while facing the opposite direction from him, and then they lock up in a collar-and-elbow test. They both end up throwing each other back into the center of the stadium lobby while trying to overpower the other.  
  
-OST pauses.-  
  
Both of them barrel-roll and slowly rise-back to three-point stances, which soon turn completely upright.   
"That the best you can do?" Kato wiped his lower lip with the top of his wrist and taunted.  
"No. Been going at about Eighty." Satoshi answered rather honestly.  
"Then you know I haven't fully been doing so either." The Chairman responded.  
"I do know. Let's change that, shall we?" The Ex-Captain reacted. He immediately performed a swift, focused meditation to release his body of all the accumulated stress and got into a looser Toshu Kakuto stance.  
Kato snickered a bit and pounded his right fist with his left palm, unleashing his "Risen Samurai" style. He then got into his dual-hand Arnis stance and with them crowding in close, the final act of their confrontation begins.   
  
-OST resumes.-  
  
The scuffle restarts with the Ex-Soldier throwing the first shot - a charging right straight. Kato avoids it by tilting his head just enough out of the way to avoid, and letting the Ex-Captain pass him by. Satoshi then attempts a left hook, which Kato Dempsey Rolls under for a murderous right haymaker, which is blocked with a left Keysi guard. Kato's plan B is not nullified, however, as he loaded a right side kick at the same time, and released it after the blocked upper-body strike to stress the sternum.  
Satoshi backs up a couple steps in reaction to his depressed chest, but remains attentive enough to duck underneath a high roundhouse kick and then sidestep the following superkick, which he also caught from behind and kicked at Kato's standing ankle to trip him up. This is all with the intent to then follow up with a crushing axe kick to Kato's forehead. This was promptly intercepted by an inverse stomp by Kato. Satoshi gets his heel back, before Kato attempts a hand sweep, and then resorts to his own plan B, with a punt kick from his other shin to the temple of the Chairman's head; Kato sits up to narrowly avoid his head from becoming a soccer ball.  
Kato floats underneath a jab for the arm wringer, but his foot gets stomped before he could capitalize on the grapple. A short-arm elbow smash breaks the wrist control and Satoshi's subsequent roundhouse nearly scalps Kato's head again. Kato's own roundhouse, down low targeting the Ex-Soldier's calves distracts the latter's attention for a high knee to the chin and/or cheeks. But Satoshi wasn't as misled as perceived, for he slid back in anticipation, so that the point of his knee flying just out of range. On the way down, he eats a knee instead - a kitchen sink, staggering back before being hoisted up in a waist-lifting spinebuster. Despite a could 12-6 elbows to the upper spine, the Chairman cannot prevent a slam of his back to the ground. But Kato can avoid the succeeding stomp, pivoting his head away from it and turning it into a Schoolboy roll-up, intending for his trademark, low-angle superkick. But Satoshi reversed that too, ducking his head and allowing the leg to fly past it, and resting on his shoulder; the Ex-Captain presses the other leg very quickly, boosting Kato up into a powerbomb position. After a three-step running start, he launches him into the far concrete-brick wall, which Kato thankfully nullifies that with an outstretched lower limb that hit it first and spun out of momentum with it.  
This still plays to Satoshi's plans as the concessions countertop, complete with gridded store security gates, was where Kato spun to. A push kick kept the Chairman at the edge and a blocked overhead punch turns into a headslam onto the metal desk. Satoshi then jumps up to take the bottom of the fringes, intending to drop it down onto Kato's chest. But the CEO gets his hands up, blocking the obstruction by a couple cms from his chest, and kicks Satoshi away before getting out of it, following the Ex-Soldier back to the center of the stadium lobby.  
Kato seized the metal container once-filled with salt condiment packets and lobbed it at Satoshi, who blocked it easily enough but lost sight of Kato while doing so, who ended up at his back and delivered a bicycle knee to his plexus when he turned around to face him again. Satoshi didn't get to back up more this time, as this rammed him right into a support pillar, as he soon realized. Kato seized the opportunity, taking Satoshi on as a swarmer boxer, laying down the pressure eerily similar to how Yada did against him earlier. This does allow Satoshi to get the upper hand when he realizes this, even stealing her reverse STO to smash Kato's head into the hard mast. He then roundhouses the leg while he's stunned to bring him to his knees, retracting the same shin for a roundhouse to Kato's nape. Kato bows underneath this one, and then catches his subsequent superkick for an overhead leg-trip takedown.  
Satoshi barely reacts to the impact and wrestles Kato into a floating cross-armbreaker. Kato breaks the lock and transitions to the leg-waist position, Giant-Swinging him into the same pillar. Satoshi takes one tile from the obelisk and frisbees it into Kato's forearm when he raises it to guards his face (the true target), buying the Ex-Captain time to rise up and recover briefly.  
Kato rallies up too, though, and comes back with even more pinned-to-side kickboxing, which is a little more successful than before due to Kato being more willing to target areas beyond Satoshi's head, such as a kitchen sink to the waist and a back knuckle to the side of the knee. The Ex-Captain finds a chance to turn back to his advantage when he ducks underneath a right hook that breaks a large piece off of the pillar, though.  
When that happens, he spins around and catches Kato in an inverted headlock neckbreaker and immediately tosses him over afterward for the Captain's Hook crossface. Kato anticipates it as he is forcibly backflipped and gets onto his side swiftly to nullify the submission and bring him up for another Olympic Slam. Kato rolls through it to bring Satoshi back up, utilizing wrist control, to try for an Enzu lariat. Satoshi ducks underneath it, causing Kato to run just up to, but not colliding with the pillar, with a side kick smashing his face to it in kind.   
Satoshi then attempts a hammerlock, but Kato easily reverses it into his own and pays the kiss to the back of his head with his own headslam. When he reels back, Kato then hooked his waist and right arm for the half-and-half snap suplex. By now Satoshi was on his last legs and Kato smells blood, walking up to him and damaging a limb before riposting at the head. The finale comes when Kato duds Satoshi's attempt at a right hook countered into a hammerlock acute lariat. This is performed by ducking below the strike, turning the aforementioned armlock into his own wringer, Irish-whipping Satoshi into the nearby vehicle wreckage. Satoshi weakly limps and turns back, so that he could be brought up for Kato's coup-de-grace - a spinning tilt-a-whirl spinning facebuster from the double-leg takedown hoist.  
  
-OST ends.-


	17. Aftermath Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The score has been settled between boss and subordinate. Commander and soldier. Blood-brother and blood-brother. 
> 
> Does that mean everything's all good, though?

Kato warily maintains his fighting stance as he treads towards his fallen foe, who has still not moved since his face painted the ceramic-hard, colored tiles of the floor.   
Suddenly, the older man gasped into consciousness (prompting the younger one to back away prudently), coughing some dust out of his mouth just afterwards. He obviously wasn't gazing at Kato upon waking back up, but he knew that he was still there. "I wasn't your primary instructor when you first got out of jail... But somehow I feel as though I'm an old mentor who's just been bested by his former, superior student in a formal duel for succession." He reflected on the past few minutes.  
"Do you feel proud about that?" The Chairman responded back, keeping on his guard still.  
"Hmm... Maybe an iota of pride. Why?" Satoshi turned himself over, facing his former boss.  
"It was just good to hear." Kato stated. "But it changes nothing." He reminded.  
"Indeed. After all, the game's still on." Satoshi concurred, slowly making his way back to his feet. But if they were about to get right back at their battle again, the stray sounds nearby them interrupted that. They belonged to Davids, who finally woke up too and was making his own way out of the BMW wreckage.  
After a bout of shaking his head clear of the recently-weaved cobwebs, the American realized the situation he was in the middle of as well. "Satoshi? Where's the modified dirtbox? Did the HYM Virus work?" He questioned spontaneously out of the gates.  
"I'm afraid not, Mr. Davids. The signal-stealer lays to your right, destroyed by Mr. Kato here. Moments before our spyplane made it into the center of Geneva's airspace. And the rest of his team were apparently successful in their goal of ensuring an antinoise could be delivered to counteract our catalyst frequency. So somehow, someway, Geneva is still HYM-free." The Ex-Captain explained.  
"Shit!!" The Kinesthesiz CEO cursed loudly. "Finish him, Satoshi. Then we can redouble our efforts, gather together our resources, procure ones we don't already have, and try again at another place, another time. And with no crummy idealists to stand in the way." The businessman planned out.  
"I'm afraid that is impossible, Mr. Davids. For I have confirmed my own suspicions while you were passed out - I cannot defeat Kato with my own strengths. And at this point, I am without any substantial equalizers." Satoshi remarked.  
"You've got to be kidding me! He's just a small prick of a kid! Man yourself up and take him down!" Davids now grew incredibly ticked.  
"Excuse me, Davids, but myself - the 'kid' you refer to - was this man's boss for quite some time. For good reason. And unless I read your relationship with Nakajima horribly incorrectly - which is significantly unlikely - then you've been following his youthful lead," Kato checked his InReTs screen, manifested onto his forearm for a splitsecond. "... For the past few months. From the very beginning of this... Huh, what shall we call this operation when it inevitably gets written down in some capacity between a set of front and back literature covers? _The HYM Hunt? The Game for Geneva?_ I lament that the Shadow War wasn't an alliterative name." Kato then checked his InReTs screen once more. "And now it is roughly six years too late for me to change it, for that is when the Chiefs of Staff in the Japanese Ministry of Defense archived the ordeal. Any author after that will face copyright penalizations if they try to refer to it as anything else in the next seventy years." Kato went on a tangent.  
"Shut up!!" Davids interrupted. "Satoshi, our deal is off if you don't fend him off with all of your best!" Davids threatened.  
"It won't do any good." The Ex-Soldier sighed. "But so be it." He got back into his fighting stance, urging Kato to do the same with his own.  
But they would all be interrupted once more.  
"Hold it!"  
The three men all looked towards the origin of the voice. All of them knew who it belonged to, but its context for its presence is what bewildered them all very significantly.  
Kazuhiro walked onto the scene through the back corridors, having entered the stadium through an alternate entrance. With him in tow, and held at gunpoint, was Yada, who notably winced and yelped at some of her captor's more forceful tugs, while still keeping her teeth gritted.  
"Kazuhiro." Satoshi needlessly identified, with all the glamour radiating from his monotone audio.  
"In case you were wondering, either of you, Nakajima's alright. He's resting up after Yada had given him quite the beating. Surely he should've just left the wetwork to myself and Satoshi." The latest arrival noted, before refocusing his attention on his mirrored self. "Younger cousin, if you value the life of your once significant other, then you are going to unclench your fists and lay down your life for her instead. Right here..." Kazuhiro then kicked at both of Yada's popliteal areas, forcing her to kneel down and having the Rapide Mk. II's nozzle prod the back of her skull. "... Right now." He concluded as menacingly as he could.   
"My, what a turn of events." Davids' satisfying expression was surely being rejuvenated now. "You heard your kin, Kato. What's it going to be?" He added onto it as if it was his birthright.  
"I'm sorry, Kato. I was being careless. Unobservant again." The KAM CFO, despite her best efforts, couldn't help looking down every so often with some degree of shame.   
"There is nothing you have to apologize to me for, Yada." The KAM CEO spoke back.  
"Last chance... Cuz." The KAM COO reminded, once more jabbing the barrel of his pistol into Yada's cranium to emphasize that point. During the ensuing moments of silence, Kazuhiro also tossed another sidearm on his person - a Taurus PT100, who laid down the iron sights on Kato's head.   
But since all significant things, such as disruptions in negotiations, happen in threes...  
An armored car drove wildly onto the scene, stopping right outside the shattered section of the arena's curtain wall. The screeching tires alarmed the five of them, turning their heads to the sight.  
"Kazuhiro!!" A thunderously feminine voice yelled aloud.   
Everyone witnessed the arrivals of Miho, Bellamy, Kat, and Naoko as they mobilized out of the converted APC with their own firearms drawn on the obvious targets.   
"Turn that gun away from Miss Yada, Kazuhiro." Miho added on, keeping her red dot sight zeroed in on his face.  
"You're not leaving here alive if you cap my best friend there, Kazuhiro!" Naoko reiterated more imperatively.  
"Not a chance, either of you. Sorry, but we all know how a Mexican standoff such as this will end. You all will bring it to the limit, but Kazuhiko here is going to cave and put a stop to it. Because he cannot let even one person he cares so much about die on his watch." The older cousin noted, as Kato continued to stare at him with vehement undertones.   
"And it's all because of that silly code of yours, Kato. No lies? No compromises? No needless casualties? There will never be such a thing. You're playing sidewalk games on all the wrongest streets. That's what Nakajima said at least, but now I am seeing it for myself. And it's all rather... What's the word- Sad, honestly. You, before me, a young man capable of such great change like me, but who does nothing, and only because the right knobs are turned. It's a waste, individuals who have the power, but intentionally limit themselves are not fit to start, let alone govern, the Wiser World." Davids elaborated, still with pride practically coursing through his veins in the place of blood.  
Kato still remained reticent, before relenting his ready stance and looking down at the floor.  
"There we go.." The American noted.  
"These streets... We don't play sidewalk games on them, Mr. Davids. And if we do..." Kato responded, looking at him now. "They're at least as cerebral as Star Trek chess." He added on.  
"Now what are you on about?" The Kinesthesiz CEO inquired.  
"I let you run your mouth for a decent amount of time, sir. Several questions were permitted in between the lines as well. So let me ask you a few things, while you're acting all high and mighty, Mr. Davids." Kato started up again. "For one, why are you trusting Kazuhiro Kato and Satoshi Tsuchiya so much?" He queried back.  
"What farce brought this up? They proved their devotion by plotting alongside Nakajima to kill you. All the way back in my facility in Salt Lake City, Utah." Davids arrogantly answered.  
"Aha. I suppose that makes sense. Now, did they succeed?" Kato, rhetorically and seamlessly continued on.  
"Well, obviously not, seeing as how you're standing there. Resplendently, as you'd put it." Davids spat.  
"Indeed. This next one is one of the last, mind you: So if they plotted to kill me, but didn't manage to seal the deal, then why do you still trust them?" He shook his head to emphasize certain fragments of his question.  
"Oh, well that's... Because..." And that is exactly when it clicked for poor, unfortunate Davids. He then went for his encrypted phone. "Any and all Kingslayers out there, converge on the Stadt - now!" He implored.  
"Not a chance. Not after so many," Kato interrupted himself to look at his InReTs screen before presenting it to him as well. "...Minutes attuning my own comms to piggyback yours, and neutralize the channel. Thanks for your spoken manifesto, by the way." He completed his revelation.  
Kazuhiro and Satoshi both looked at each other mirroring the same marginal smirks on their faces and turning their attention towards the Kinesthesiz CEO, along with the rest of the KAM Team. Yada was naturally released, herself brandishing quite the gratifying smile, and running into Kato's grasp, excited as they both were.  
"Perhaps they tried their best... Since then too... But they- underestimated you, though. Davids fearfully backed away from their collective advance on his person. "Or Nakajima's schemes didn't mesh with theirs like we hoped" He continued with his breakdown in denial.  
"We Kato Alliance members are known in the wet-work world mainly for one thing, Mr. Davids. We get things done. And it's when we don't that clients, such as yourself, have to really wonder why that is. Because if they are not incompetent, as you know well, and if they are not too cowardly to perform optimally, as you also know very well, then what are they?" Kato grinned menacingly, not helped by leaning and bowing forward.  
The Kinesthesiz CEO's eyes dilated to the point where the black of his pupils overtook the entirety of the neighboring irises.  
"Don't worry, mate. It's natural to feel lost when you're standing opposite to a Kato. I'm still a bit confused about all of this, myself." Naoko assured him in the most insulting way.  
"By the way, I did tell you Nakajima was resting up. I didn't lie about that either; he's sleeping up... Sleeping with the fishes, that is!" Kazuhiro cracked up to his own quip.  
True to a Kato's word, Nakajima was sleeping with the fishes... Literally, sleeping in between the comfiest pallet sandwich inside a seafood slaughterhouse (which was due to a forklift pinning him with the top pallet. A radio was left on a table beyond his reach, and was producing a stray frequency which Geneva Police were led to tracing, luring them to the front door of the facility, which they promptly barge through.  
Kato took a moment to look at his InReTs screen one more time. "If we're still playing sidewalk games, Davids, I believe it's your turn now." Kato checked his watch condescendingly.  
"You little scumbag. Just know that I've got your ass! You just need to wait and see!" Davids threatened emptily.  
"Sure. I'll wait for it while you're holed up in Gitmo." Kato crossed his arms triumphantly.  
And that is exactly when the facade breaks. "Please... No, I've changed into this - I can change back!" He bargained.  
"Hm..." Kato looked up, lost in concentration. "That was four seconds. Just four seconds, and you're on the third stage of grief. Would be impressive, if it wasn't so much more pathetic." The Chairman asserted.  
"Gitmo may have you, but we didn't promise you in a good state when turned in." Miho slung her rifle behind her.  
"May even run some HYM Virus through you too; a taste of your own medicine, so you'd at least know the suffering that you were going to cause on everyone else." Yada suggested as well.  
They all continued to approach him, who couldn't get away any further after backpedaling into the far wall. This realization made him also cover up his face and tuck his knees and elbows into his torso as he sat, attempting to make as little of him vulnerable as possible.  
  
-Some time later...-  
  
Daybreak came up on Geneva; the first one since the end of the... HYM Hunt. Naoko used her Agency cards to justify their presence to the city's infrastructure, while also bridging the transfer of Davids to US custody due to his origins, and claiming Nakajima for Japan to be tried and brought to Hi-Q. Kato's research on his notebooks and other documents, certified by Alvarez, convinced the municipality to host a vaccine shelter to dissolve the HYM Virus' within everyone while it was still in dormant form, and the field Captains discreetly claimed the modified gas rockets from Geneva Lake so that they couldn't be salvaged and tested upon.  
All of that, plus the above-average amount of tension that they had dealt with throughout last night, left them all more than a little tired. As a result, when they got on the private plane taking them back to their homeland Tokyo, they used most of the ten-hour flight time to rest up.  
"You bested 'Stereo' Steven Hicks via the Zamboni Choke in the fourth round?" Miho, on the airplane phone reiterated.  
"He's not going to like it when several years from now, when he has lost respect for me and begins insulting me on social media, that I can honestly retort that I learned it from an SO." Keitaro, on the other line, implicitly answered.  
"It is a nice way to segway straight into BJJ, isn't it? North-South." Miho rolled with it.  
"Heh... Yeah." Nishiki refocused. "So when will you be back? Ronin's getting really antsy."  
"I won't be long; Forty minutes away from our usual private airfield outside Tokyo. Can I expect you there?" The Vice-Captain suggested.  
"You know what? Why not?" Keitaro could audibly be heard shuffling things together. "See you in forty; fifty-five if the traffic is not being nice."  
"Love you." Miharu smiled widely.  
"You too." Keitaro hung up.  
The Vice-Captain slowly returned the handle back to the wall-mounted holster.  
"You have it all, Miho."  
The Ex-JGSDF turned around to find Kato looking at her, two Yamazaki whiskey glasses in his hand. He hands one of them to her, which she gladly accepts (with the usual honors that come before), and takes a sip before replying. "Why say that?" She asked.  
"Strong, smart, as wise as you must be for your years, without looking like it, and compassionate when you have to be. You're a definite article, Miho. And it's a crime that many of the ignorant keep believing you're single due to factors beyond your control." Kato explained.  
"Come on, Chairman. I'm supposed to be the one being so flowery towards you." She held her hip teasingly.  
"All good leaders know talent when they see more than a lick of it; you know this. The better ones know to express that to them." Kato leaned on the wall as he took his sip.  
"Appreciated very highly, at least." Miho smiled, sipping again.  
"But back to the tangent... How'd you do it?" Kato looked to her again.  
"Do what?" Miho became curious.  
"You know... You and Keitaro. Stay fine and dandy while together, but not always together together, for those..." Kato checked his watch. "... Many years, summed up as half your life?" He asked.  
"Oh, that... You wouldn't believe it if I said it takes constant communication?" The Vice-Captain suggested.  
"No... I could see that." Kato's eyebrows lifted.  
"Loving spouses are touted as that one person you can talk to about anything. Most get hung up on the 'can' part, as they want to believe their secrets are sacred and worth keeping in absolution. And some are, but never to absolutely everyone. I'm not going to say 'can' means 'must', but there's an argument for 'should'. For if all it takes to make them happy inside is the sound of your own voice, then what would the feeling become - be described as, once they hear even the slightest bit of good news?" She exposited.  
"Yeah... That sounds about right." Kato turned away for another sip.  
"Kato, I know you're asking this because you keep thinking about Yada." Miho slit her eyes suggestively. "Don't begin thinking I'm ignorant of that."  
"That's why I didn't try to hide it, but I didn't outright say it." Kato looked at her with some slyness as well.  
Miho laughed a bit, which she copied. "That aside, just know that communication will always be key." She finalized. "I'm going to take a quick power-nap now; don't want to look exhausted before Keitaro for the thirteenth time in a row. Get some rest too, hm?" Miho caressed her boss' chinline and kissed him on the forehead before leaving for the passenger section, leaving Kato to finish his drink.  
Kato watched her move out of his sight, and then looked on his phone, finding a string of text messages from his uncle Norio.  
"You still kicking, nephew?"  
"Can't you answer just this once during an op? Who's really going to trace the data packets?"  
"I bet you're even reading these on your KAM HUD right now! Aren't you?"  
"Is this really how you treat your ailing father's brother?"  
"Come on, radio silence is as boring as it is anxiety-inducing..."  
"Okay, I get it. You want to focus and prepare."  
"Just know this: I love you, nephew."  
"And not just because you're all that's left of Kazuto. Because you're always going to be all of him and more."  
"Because you have a mother too."  
Kato then looked at the final one, which was posted just this morning.  
"And because there's no such thing as forsaking family - only extending it."  
That last statement made Kato close his eyes and hold his flip-phone to his chest, eventually closing it by pushing his chin down on the top, which transitioned into covering his mouth for a sigh.  
Naoko once more stayed only half-asleep, and heard everything from around the corner, growing a displeasing expression when Miho passes by, almost as if a certain belief of hers has been confirmed, despite her hopes that it wouldn't.  
Not too long after that, the private jet made a safe landing on the ground.  
The Kato cousins were the last ones to depart from the aircraft's mobile staircase.  
"Thanks again for all of the assistance, cuz. You were right that being a doubter-type ally would throw off the enemy's judgement in more ways than one." Kazuhiko spoke to his older kin with admiration.  
"You can praise, but it was out of necessity. I couldn't really muster up the ability to completely detest you, or be in support of such destructive goals." Kazuhiro responded.  
"You can certainly at least hide that better than Norio." Kato refocused. "I reckon this..." He checked his watch before continuing. "... Long week has made him rather worried about our well-beings. You going to meet up with him before getting back to your COO work?"   
"You bet I have to see him, but alerting the Kato Alliance that this little debacle was over should probably come first, so all can get out of submarine-level silence. Also, we got to drop off all of the salvaged equipment into inventory." He expanded upon. "Bellamy, Satoshi, Kat..." The older cousin motioned over to the mountain of strapped, tactical strongboxes, all of various shapes and sizes that stacked to beyond any of their heights (and just as wide). "Mind giving me a hand?"  
"No problem." Bellamy reacted.  
"Alright." Satoshi concurred.  
"Do my best." Kat saluted before following the Brit.  
"I'll help load up too - even take some cases back home. But not coming with, naturally. High time someone dear to Keitaro helped him up the stairs during the post-match recovery period." Miho acknowledged, lifting up eight of the heavy containers by their cross-strapped constriction.  
_Tell me Naoko._ Yada whispered into the Agent's ear. _At your peak, can you do that?  
Maybe more than half the time._ Naoko honestly answered.  
"Alas, the armored van is almost-fully stockpiled." Kazuhiro turned to his relative. "Stay safe, Kaz-e. And don't hesitate to call me back in if and when you need it; nothing's too small or dumb for family." He mentioned.  
"Preaching to the choir. But thank you, Cuz. Love you without a second thought." Kato embraced his loyal family member and saw him and three of the Captains off.  
As they trailed its trajectory, Miho noticed Keitaro situated close to the horizon. "Ah, there's the hubby. Look at him, waving about like a cheerleader obsessed with a jock." The Ex-JGSDF described. Just afterwards, Ronin could be seen poking his head out from behind the convertible's back door. "Ah, and the blushed's excitable pet." Miho returned her attention to the trio. "Naoko, Yada, godspeed to you both. Keep the lessons you've learned by your superiors close to heart, and set the example for aspiring young ladies everywhere."  
"We'll make an impression; count on it." Naoko glanced over to Yada, who nodded gleefully in agreement.  
"Very good." She then looked to her boss. "See you next mission. Hopefully even before." She suggested.  
"Definitely." Kato grinned, colliding forearms with Miho to send her on her own way.  
There was a brief silence as they watched the coupe leave the premises.  
"I can only imagine how Kazuto dealt with her back when she was more defiant and boisterous. She's still such a threat, restrained as she is now." Yada observed and questioned.  
"My uncle said that my father made sure she knew how to keep it restricted, in case they needed it. But of course, my father lived..." Kato checked his watch. "... During a much more trying time, so mercy wasn't always the biggest thing in mind." Kato answered.  
"Fair enough." Naoko sighed. "Speaking of what's in the minds, I'm going to be off to put this operation into the records, so that the words are organized before interpol comes on over and gets on the Ministries' cases about the international incident. Before I do that, though, I reckon there needs to be absolute clarification on these matters. Something you two are keen on capitulating." The Asset noted.  
"We're all ears." The CFO agreed.  
"So, several years back, you get word that the CEO of Kinesthesiz was falling down on his luck due to many denials of patents and greenlights to distribute his equipment. Only a year later, funding comes back in a big way, leading you all to believe there is trouble nearby."  
"Correct." Kato leered at his timekeeper to confirm the chronological aspect.  
"You then discover that the investor, Nakajima, is the one corrupting Davids and rises it back up all with the intent to pull off his once-in-a-lifetime gambit, just to prove he can one-up the legendary New World King, Kazuhiko Kato?" The Defense Agent considered.  
"Doubled-down." Yada acknowledged.  
"You went for the double-agent game, where Satoshi was really a triple-agent in the meantime, and used a staged death in Salt Lake to earn their trust. From there, Satoshi and Kazuhiro had free reign to control the times at which the Kingslayers could meet with them to arrange a deal for the HYM Virus, which in turn gave you, Yada, and the other Captains time to quell it." She added on.  
"On a roll." Kato nodded.  
"Nobody but Nakajima and Davids really believed you were dead either, which among other things, debilitated their judgement in the games and become more reliant on the turncoats to get the job done, up until the finale, which was only because we didn't know how the Kingslayers operated when they were at the helm of things. Good thing Satoshi and Kazuhiro played it back to our strengths in a natural manner. And all the collateral damage, namely in the form of unintended casualties, such as a certain Swiss girl's significant other, were staged deaths, all to sweat the small stuff..." Naoko looked aside in concentration.  
The two Chief Officers gestured approvingly.  
"How on Earth did this go so well?" Naoko finally asked the big question.  
"Well not everything was concrete. For one, we didn't know you would show up. The secret of Satoshi and my Cuz's true allegiances was highly confidential, so we didn't initially know when it was right to tell you about it, along with the rest of the plan. Along with that, myself contracting the harmful symptoms of the HYM Virus was unanticipated as well; it threw off our initial attack at the DC Towers - where we intended to stop the Kingslayers fully, because we couldn't rely on my lost knowledge of Nakajima's countermeasures, allowing him to escape when the ambush failed. I eventually recovered organically, but obfuscated continued suffering to get everyone back under one line of thought, at the cost of my own reputation. I didn't want to trick any of you as well, and it hurt me to see you all so hurt by my act. But I already explained to Yada why we couldn't do that using traditional stratagem. Satoshi played a part as well, going above and beyond the call of duty to lure the Kingslayers into false senses of security, guaranteeing our success, despite his lack of a final direction, and secretly voicing all of the next moves to me in case there was any confusion." Kato chuckled. "So, like many times before, the key to saving the day was having a million back-up plans and emphasize a few thousand of them so that the other hundred-thousands could work with a couple tweaks." He asserted.  
"Aha... I'm sure Secretary Sanada and the others at the Defense Dept. are to going to love hearing that in the final paragraphs of the report." Naoko sighed. "I'm just glad this worked out like a lucid dream... Well, almost everything worked out, anyways." She turned away.  
The duo looked at her curiously. "Whatever could you mean, Naoko-san?" Yada inquired.  
"Well, call me a hopeless romantic, but I was hoping that after this crazy little adventure, that the love between you two would have rekindled in some capacity. Enough that it would get you both back together - you know, as a couple. But not just any couple - the kind of couple that all of their friends cannot help but admire, look up to, because it is so sweet to witness." Naoko explained the source of her disappointment.  
"Naoko?" Kato quizzically looked on.  
"You were at least that for me and Karma... Okay, for me only, but it did allow me to dream about our own relationship; see that we could probably reach such a level of obvious bonding. And an understanding of what should remain with us or in the past. But once more, it's shown that optimism attracts cruel mistresses..." The Agent analogized.  
"Oh, Naoko-san. If that was what you've been sulking about for the past half-day, then you should've told us from the start... So that we could make you give up your hopes much sooner. For we could never get back together..." Yada began her lament.  
"Yeah... I noticed." The Asset turned away.  
Kato snickered as he shared a stare into the eyes with Yada. "... If we never broke up again to begin with." He finished the statement.  
"Aha. Yes, I can see how that would make reconciliation very difficult-" Naoko wildly turned back towards them with wickedly-open eyes. "Wait, WHAT?!" She shrieked.


	18. Ending Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kingslayer Crisis (yes, that shall be the new, coolest nickname for the struggle once it gets into the covert history books) has now, finally, come to a close. Let's just make sure our two heroes are all the better for it.
> 
> And of course, to set up a sequel.

"Wait, WHAT?!" Naoko shrieked.  
Yada giggled a bit before wrapping her arms around Kato's close right, caressing her chest on it as well. "Naoko, we aren't exes. At least, not for the second time." She directly confirmed.  
"As a matter of fact, we are spouses." Kato checked his watch, while Yada pulled out the wedge heel from one of her sneakers, and opened up its secret compartment to reveal her wedding band neatly fastened within - a tungsten-carbide bright silver ring with cerulean wave accents and interior; there was engraving of a cursive heart followed by the characters, "Never too far". "Married for the past three years. And five months. Could go into the days, hours, minutes, and seconds with you, but we all know how you feel about that." Kato added on, swiftly transitioning to detaching the ballistic loop that keeps his dog tag necklace around his neck; behind the reinforcement layering was his own, identical ring.   
"You're kidding me right now!?" Naoko expressed denial of this striking reveal.  
"No, we're not kidding. Husband and wife, awaiting the fourth anniversary." The CFO gleefully noted.  
"And happily-committed spouses at that. Yeah, we get into our own arguments, but none of them are ever as gruesome as the ones we've staged throughout this operation." Kato mentioned.   
"Indeed. The worst fight we've ever had was deciding on which one of us gets to put their name on the lease of the next KAM building that's being constructed in Silicon Valley." Yada reminisced, looking up in concentration.  
"Yes... I'm still surprised that I ended up with that charge." The CEO noted. Meanwhile, Naoko's poor mind continued to explode.  
"How did you ever become a multi-billionaire by being such a pushover to everyone you've ever respected? You could have at least resisted once I got too comfortable to your suggestion, instead of turning it into a service with a silver platter! Would have made it a much more interesting debate!" Yada pivoted her head to him with a nigh-confrontational tone.  
"Everything became so much better when you took up Chief Officer rank, at the same time as Kazuhiro. I reckon you unquestionably deserved the lease more than I did." Kato defended his position.  
The CFO then looked to the Asset with a judging expression. "You see that, Naoko-san? The argument goals shifted a whole one-eighty and lasted like this for another fifteen minutes before Kato capitulated and signed the document to keep me from blowing steam out of my ears. I was still a little ticked with him afterwards, but by the end of the day, we were good again." Yada concluded.  
The Agent could only finish rubbing her head frustratingly before vocally responding. "What was with all of this song and dance, then? Why did you fake not being in love?" She queried.  
"Why else? To throw off Nakajima. Remember, Naoko: that guy wanted specifically to one-up me, for the bragging rights. But in his study of me, he knows that I'm capable of all too much when I hold any set of cards with perfectly-playing hands. Therefore, we knew that we could control when the little wannabe would strike, revealing himself, in the HYM Hunt - yep, that's what we're going to be calling it from now on - by making me look as vulnerable as ever. And being physically and mentally compromised is all well and good-looking to the opponents, but performance in us humans is also based on emotion, and if I exhibited vulnerability there, perhaps in the form of heartbreak or delusions of good relations, we knew he would smell the blood and dive for the perceived carcass." Kato exposited.  
"It hurt us deeply to play being people who didn't love each other anymore, but the mission had to come first, so we psyched ourselves to suck it up." Yada briefly lamented, brushing her head on Kato's shoulder.  
"God, to think that I was believing you purposefully hiding your deepest regret was the biggest red herring you dangled over everyone's heads this year." Naoko expressed even more awe.  
"Allowing others to put words into my mouth and reacting ambiguously has swiftly become one of my favorite ways to hide the truth without lying outright." Kato grinned again.  
"Does anyone else know about this?" Naoko interrogated further.  
"Aside from fellow Kato Alliance members, my family is aware, and an unaffiliated Vietnamese Priest from the Fukuoka section of Qita Kong officiated the elopement. I also let Irina know, as I couldn't wait to hear her reaction, but aside from that, nobody." Yada elucidated.   
"Oh good, at least I'm in the same boat as the rest of our friends in AssUniv. Wait, most of AssUniv doesn't know? What the Hell's wrong with you?" Naoko doubled-back once more.  
"This was highly confidential information that was quite possibly, and proved to be, essential to the operation, Naoko. And if Yada is correct, AssUniv are not the greatest secret-keepers, especially for assassins." Kato argued.   
"Yes, especially when said secrets concern our Mentors. Remember us exposing Korosensei's perverted tendencies?" The CFO reminded.  
The odd one out couldn't help shaking her head slowly. "I really hate how right the both of you are right now... Do you at least plan on letting them know anytime soon?" Naoko inquired.  
"Perhaps we will, since we've both realized how much we hate playing exes." Kato affirmed.  
"Yeah." Yada smiled again at her lifelong friend. "When you get back home, be on the lookout for a videochat invite that will go out to all of our friends. That'll be when we host the reception for our marriage." Yada dictated.  
"And during that, will you tell them too how long due the festivities are?" The Asset requested for one last piece of information.  
"That, you'll just have to wait and see." Kato asserted, pulling his spouse closer to his center.  
"Aha..." Rather disappointingly, Naoko muttered, as she went to collect her own, small batch of bags. "You know, I may not be showing it right now, but I am really excited. Because I did tell you, Yada-san, that I had really warmed up to the two of you together. And I meant it. It's as if, so long as you guys are happy, there's no way the rest of the Program's remnants cannot find their own joy as well." Naoko smirked as all of her belongings hung around her figure. She then walked over to a heavily-modified Suzuki Hayabusa - which bore a very similar appearance to the one Kato gifted her early in the Shadow War - that included a sidecar for storage. She straddled over the seat and revved the two-wheeler up. "Don't be strangers, the two of you - you hear? No poor communication, and no compromising your natures. I fear for the world if that comes to pass."  
"Don't worry." Kato asserted.  
"Heheh." The Asset then put on a nearby helmet. "Be seeing you both soon." She finally brought down the eye visor and drove off.  
And then there were only two left at the airfield, aside from the staff unloading the rest of the plan and prepping it to be brought into a hangar.  
This latter detail, Yada noticed after a couple seconds of watching her good friend leave. "Not planning on going to the next mission with that craft?" She curiously pondered aloud.  
"Why should I?" Kato looked to her with equal perplexity.  
"I put words into your mouth, just to keep Naoko sufficiently satisfied." The woman acknowledged.  
"Are you sure about that?" The man spoke back.  
Yada smiled in response. "I guess I'm not so sure."  
A second later, they turned to embrace deeply while also tilting their heads to kiss.  
For the next few days, Kato and Yada did... Many of the same things that they used to do as a couple, from pairs exercising in a hotel's gym (which KAM/The Kato Alliance naturally owned, of course), cooperatively presenting new company updates to their fellow officers and managers in the company's headquarters building, long morning jogs (and by long, we mean ninety minutes... For a full marathon) and partaking in dual motorcycle drives across the city as it became evening and nighttime, basking in the vibrance of the metropolis they both found without equal. The last stage of their journey included a trip to the Old Schoolhouse for Formerly Class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior-High School, which now hosted a wall that was filled with photos of everyone's exploits while tending to the landmark. The CFO brought the CEO up to speed on all that he had missed, yet helped to construct, which included an explosive tie-die day, mural contests, and even a surprise engagement proposal from one member to another, much to the shocking jubilance of everyone else around them.  
But alas, the invite time that Yada had intended upon was approaching. And when it finally came, at six P.M. on the exact date, the heavily-awaited reception has come. It naturally started off as a Q-and-A over Yada's sudden disappearance, and knowing full well that Kato was involved, which led to a worldwide operation to save said world. But then, when it came time afterwards...  
"Here here!!"  
Absolutely every soul that lay claim to the Assassination Classroom and University fame was present to raise a glass of champagne in celebration to finally witnessing the tied knot between the big siblings of their tightly-bound group. Even Lovro was there, though his glass was broken by a ballistic moments after he took a sip from it, causing him to cut his transmission short. Nobody seemed to be worried however, given that it's Lovro.  
As for how everyone has the same bottle and stem glass despite this taking place over more than two dozen different locations for everybody... Care packages were air-dropped to each of their lodgings. Remember that Kato is a small-arms mogul.  
"Damn, this is some really banger bubbly." Sugino marveled at the Armand de Brignac Gold champagne.  
"It better be; each bottle was priced at over 3K." Yada uttered.  
"This really takes me back, you know. Sitting in one little VIP platform in Nyurifu Rikkyo? A nightclub owned by the Japanese mob, and we just drank all sorts of alcohol to our heart's content." Karma considered.  
"And virtually bankrupting ourselves the first time." Mimura snarked.  
"Again, though, everything worked out really well afterwards." Kurahashi backtracked.  
"Indeed." Okano concurred. "And even if it didn't it's far too much of a stable for us now. In fact, so much so, that I reckon that we have to do that at least one more time someday."  
"I'd be all for it, Okano-san." Isogai then took a sip. "But we are at that point where we are not seeing each other in person all that much anymore. Makes me a bit sad honestly."  
"Is the male class prez going to start crying, huh? Initiate the waterfalls for everyone else?" Nakamura quipped, while inspecting her own glass.  
"Um, no." Isogai nonchalantly denied.  
Kimura looked aside from his webcam; nobody seemed to notice, but if they did, they could probably tell that he was thinking of something along the lines of _"[D]amn ikemen..."  
_"So, Yada..." Kataoka spoke next, sitting right next to Isogai on the webcam coverage. "Since you're answering to such and not protesting, we can safely assume that you've also, like the rest of us married girls, have kept your maiden name?"  
"Indeed. Wasn't much of a debate either; Kato just asked if I wanted to switch, I said no, and he was alright with it." The CFO recounted.  
"I even thought it better this way, seeing as how I'm still in the thick of the more dangerous life; the last thing I want is to needlessly endanger my spouse." Kato added on.   
"What's to become of your children, then? Going to merge surnames?" Hara questioned.  
"Ah! Children. Um..." Kato stumbled up for the first time.  
"They'll indeed have the surname of Kato. What kind of Family business would it be if the future successors are not actually referred to as Katos like their old man?" Yada pointed out.  
"Fair enough, but the dear Chairman's humorous reaction has us lead to believe that he hasn't even thought about that side of the wedded life yet." Karasuma observed with a small smirk.  
"I'm rather surprised you took to your sudden kid announcement well honestly, Karasuma-sensei." Mimura confessed.  
"What does that mean, Mimura?" The Chief of Air Staff's eyes slit with aggression; something most of the AssUniv members noticed.  
"Well, when did you ever make the impression that you wanted offspring, Karasuma? That's probably what they're going on." Irina quickly attempted to defuse her husband. Her far eye, which wasn't visible to Karasuma, then leered over to the camera with a "roll-with-it" expression. They were all too willing to comply.  
"Hmph. I suppose that makes sense. The dynamic that I saw between Naoko and my mentor, however, was always a bit enticing for me. Just something about the warmth of it all, stemming from the heat of one's conflict to provide peace for another. Even though it causes no shortage of pain, the satisfaction is undeniable; I knew that the moment Hiiro breathed his last. So that's why I didn't discourage having Chiasa; my teacher really made me want to feel it for myself - resonate with it." He reacted frankly.  
"Ever thought of being a poet when you're done being a super-agent, sensei?" Nakamura killed the mood.  
"He could stand to learn a little more alliteration, on top of other techniques, before he goes down that alley. Otherwise I may need to be on life support." Hazama remarked.  
"Well that escalated quickly." Maehara noticed with near-popped-out eyes.   
"Correct. I detect a 3000% rise in tension from the last 5.43 seconds." Ritsu acknowledged. And yes, she too was holding a glass of champagne, albeit a digital one of course.  
"Oh, quiet you." Yukimura gestured to settle down.  
"On the matter of kids, though... Really, Yada? You think it's still high school that you can believe the time to be parents is different than the time to be spouses?" Okano now squinted her eyes, though with teasing in mind rather than dissent.  
"Surely we are in a bizarro world." Muramatsu added on.  
"Mind your tongue, all of you. Unless you've had a kid yourselves, which only includes Bitch-sensei and Fuwa, you all don't get to chide me any more than the other way around." Yada bounced back, before doubling back in turn. "Speaking of which, Fuwa?" She started up.  
"Heheh, I'm sure you're surprised huh? Turns out one of my clients really likes how I can deal out the spins. So we married and had a kid - we named her Marina, she's now two. You guys know this, though - why am I reminding you all of it?" The Editor inquired.  
"It is just so disbelieving!" Sugino bellowed.  
"Just what is so wrong with that?" She crossed her arms in response.  
"You're you!" Terasaka argued.  
"Thanks, jackass genius. What else?" She flawlessly blew past.  
"He's thirty-six!" Yukimura pointed out.  
"The age-gap algebra checks out; he can date and mate with others as young as twenty-five." The Editor confirmed. "Anyways, how did this become all about me? Kato and Yada are the ones on the chopping block right now." She diverted back.  
"You're absolutely right, Fuwa. Let's now talk about everyone else's excuses for their lack of a child even though they hooked up before Kato and-" Yada transitioned seamlessly, but was interrupted.   
"So, Yada and Kato don't want babies yet. That's alright by them! Because there's tons of other couples activities they can do!" Kataoka saw where this was going first and intercepted with an interjection.  
"Indeed! Especially with each other." Hayami helped defuse the current situation. "Couples wine tasting, for example. Eat out at new restaurants. Camping, yoga, the list goes on."  
"Well, we do have some things for the sake of variety, but Kato..." Yada gestured to him.  
"Much of our time together is to relive the nostalgia in a present agenda. Think of it as a program that has undergone noticeable patches; now that we know how it works best, we've done it those ways now." The CEO then hugged the CFO's waist tightly, causing her to yelp pleasantly. "What's more, myself and Miho have been running Yada through a training regimen so that she can keep up with my Captains and Lieutenants whenever an impromptu mission comes up. True enough, KAM has a decent few enemies in the underworld, so some extra training in self-defense comes in handy for a prominently public entity like herself."   
"Is that right?" Karma replied. "Nothing wrong with bettering yourself, I suppose. I thinks it's good to let you two know that we've been keeping active as well. Some marathons here, some sparring there. Sometimes we even do some assassination and investigation games in between cleaning up the Class 3-E Schoolhouse." He asserted.  
"Huh, I'm impressed." Karasuma showed some satisfied surprise at the confirmation.  
"Of course, we're often following it up with a couple packs of energy drinks and 24-oz steaks. Because, as a male class president once said - Class, say it with me!" Yoshida hyped up for a wave.  
Altogether, everyone shouted "We work hard (yes!), play hard (yes!)!"  
"I'm afraid of the product of this sudden equation popping into my mind..." Okuda exposited.  
"What equation?" Kurahashi tilted her head quizzically.  
"One of us." Nagisa beckoned.  
"Plus alcohol..." Chiba showed his champagne.  
"Times the rest of us..." Okajima waved his hand across his webcam.  
"Equals a time full of rowdy-ness..." Takebayashi finished the formula.  
And so it was... Or perhaps stayed? Regardless, as they reached the ends of their bottles, all members except for Kato and Karasuma became more engrossed in having the more scandalous of conversations, including, but not limited to, Okajima accidentally having a threesome with both of the Shiroyuki Twins when Sayaka's date on that night no-showed, Nakamura pretending to be an "escort" of sorts to get her fellow Little exchange student from Taiwan out of a French nightclub, and Nagisa accidentally calling one of his students Sakura because of how similarly said learner looked to the other, and then having to deal with the entire classroom misinterpreting it as an inappropriate fling of a relationship.  
In between the storytelling, Kato's phone vibrated on his thigh. He took it out and flipped it open to find a message alert... From Karasuma? The Chairman gave a quick, discreet leer to the window showing the Chief and the Honey Trap's webcam coverage, and saw that the former was sharing his gaze back. Knowing not to protest or ignore it, he proceeds to read:  
_Kato, I had promised Koro-sensei to look after these kids after graduation, and I have been doing so the best I can. And the Lord knows I intend to keep doing it... But things in life are really shaking up right now. With Chiasa now hitting six years of age, myself and Irina think it best that she starts receiving education all across the world to get her more versed in the curriculum and lifestyle of the Japanese Ministry. And since we need to stick with our newest student at least for the next half-decade, I won't be able to keep an eye on these students as strongly as I have before. As a result, I will have to delegate for that time... And nobody commands their respect as strongly as I do than you. So, with all your time, skills, resources, I need you to promise me you will keep them safe for the foreseeable future. I'm sure you understand... And cannot refuse out of your own will.  
_The CEO looks back up upon finishing, with Karasuma still staring at him. Kato then nodded twice and smiled with acceptance and without question, which Karasuma copied.  
"Karasuma-sama, why you've been so quiet lately?" Irina slung her arm across his clavicles.  
"The direction of the conversations haven't been going my way." The Chief answered.   
Kato snickered for a moment before scanning the entirety of his monitor and finding a wall of precious snowflakes that doubled as irreplaceable friends and unwavering allies. _Yeah... Don't worry, Karasuma and Irina. This group will be in good hands._ He thought.   
Eventually, the night had to end, and for now, all of the AssUniv Remnants had to go their separate ways. Kato and Yada gleefully finished off their champagne and shared a moment crossing ring fingers, allowing their bands to meet with an audible clink, and then lean in for an extended peck. A cooperative wash-up and change later, and they transitioned to the California King mattress.  
Some time later...  
Yada's laid-out wristwatch on the nightstand's dials saw time become 11:33 P.M. before long. The past two hours, in Kato and Yada's perspective, felt like moments in comparison, complete with aggressive hand and wrist-holding, numerously long-lasting osculations, a stray set of audible grunts, a whimper/apology combo, giggling/snickering, the rattling of some steel link chains, and finally some soft, semi-quick breathing. When it concluded, the man was on his back, resting his eyes for a bit while the woman rested her head on one side of his chest, with her top hand over the other side; his close arm also coiled around her waist underneath the bedsheets. She was nominally clothed with a disheveled satin tank top, contrasting the shirtless-ness of her mate, who was adorned on top only with his dog tag necklace and wristwatch.  
_Hmm... A stressed inhalation every four seconds._ Kato confirmed his own lung patterns, through his nanite comm link.  
_It was every five seconds last time, right? Means my stamina's going up._ Yada, far more exhausted, took her time to convey.  
Kato gave another light chuckle and then another peck, this time to her forehead. She mimicked the reaction and found the strength to lift herself up a bit and look him in the eyes. Though he could see how pleasant and cheerful she was, the outline of her irises also told another story. _Yada? Something on your mind?_ He transmitted more of his observations.  
_It's nothing too essential._ Yada took a moment to brush some of her disheveled hair on her right side behind her ear. _You know with steadfast dogmatism that I am forever in support of your work, and I understand that that will mean we will be apart for the larger half of the year for all of the foreseeable years.  
But...?  
But. Ah... But. Such a word. But, if we want the moments we are physically together to be truly magical, maybe once in a while, it should become less of a routine?  
Less routine?  
Yeah. Not from one task to another. Not trading one work, one exercise, for another. A vacation, essentially. Where for just a brief time, we don't have to consider the world outside of our a city district, or the distance between a coastline resort and the breakfast buffet place three blocks away from it. _The CFO quickly pivoted her gaze back at Kato for a moment. _And you should know that those words mathematically eliminate the chance of you referring to the days after our wedding as a honeymoon. As beautifully breathtaking as Tonga was, and despite us having enough time to go for some sightseeing afterwards, busting a pirate den is not a casual gathering in another form._ She noted.  
_I concur._ Kato nodded.  
_Good._ Yada grinned while looking away. _It is still not too much of an issue, though. Most only organize those to prove they love the other spouse without question. But I never doubt yours, even when you're across the world, because there's no such word as betrayal in your vocabulary._ She then rolled off and faced one of the horizons of the bed. _Well, that was it. You don't have to think too much of it. Just... Hold me from behind until I fall asleep. And then a little longer._ She concluded.  
Kato immediately complied, spooning her and snuggling his lower face on the back of her head.   
_This is all we ever need..._ Yada delightfully noted. Minutes later, her brainwave frequencies slowed to the point of REM sleep, leaving Kato to reflect on his wife's words while holding her in his arms.  
The next day...  
Daylight dawned on a new morning, and Yada stirred awake, straining her eyes and blinking a few times before focusing her sight properly. Her alarm clock continued to blare, speeding up her waking process. When she fully came to, she looked underneath the loose side of her pillow, finding nothing but mattress underneath, and followed it up with a slow pivot back. What she witnesses first doesn't surprise her as she intends to turn back to her natural sleeping position for a few more minutes of shuteye... But then she wickedly reopens them and turns back frantically. "Kato?!"  
Behind her still, the Chairman lay, hugging her hipline to keep her in his spoon. His head sank a bit to meet her nape rather than her parietal bone, hiding himself until she made the latest effort to notice him. His name-call also seemed to alert him. "You rang?" He muttered, slowly opening his own eyes in response.  
"What are you still doing here?" She completely turned her body towards him, with them now face-to-face within a few centimeters.  
"Sleeping. You like it when I get more than four hours a day of it." He honestly answered.  
"Ah- I-" Yada mumbled through her attempts to make a reaction to his impossible response.  
"And also... I processed much of what you said." He refocused. "And I agree. We deserve a vacation."  
"What are you saying?" Yada wondered.  
"Give me a moment. Too many questions to begin the day. His left hand snaked underneath the bedsheets and clutched Yada's derriere.  
"Wuuhah-?!" Yada squeed a bit as she was being pulled closer, otherwise allowing Kato a chance to regain his composure.  
Kato snickered. "Ah, back to the question. What do you think? After..." Kato checked his watch. "...Three years, five months, fourteen days, two hours, and thirty-six seconds, I think nobody can blame us for wanting to take a small hiatus from being a part of what keeps the world from turning cold. Especially when all of the rest of our friends have received and taken similar opportunities." Kato then reached over Yada to turn off the alarm clock, and also receive her tactical lens case. He took one out to carefully put into Yada's right eye. "Take a look at your K-odec IM." He ordered.  
Yada turned on her back and focused on the HUD. "Madagascar... Rio... Stockholm... Hokkaido?" She identified the key destinations on the latest message list.  
"Those are our spots for a vacation. A real one. No operations to stop maniacs, no matters to investigate, no company business to deal with, no improv that isn't our intention, no crimes to bust. We are just there to have fun." Kato narrated.  
Yada deactivated her lens and looked back at Kato.  
"Unless you want to undertake any street problems we happen upon." He finished.  
"You organized this all last night?" She looked at him with wide-eyed disbelief.  
"It took-" Kato checked his watch again. "... An hour honestly." He corrected, before moving his top hand from her hip to her cheek. "But, ah such a word, but I can take longer with it if you like. Because I want to make our personal lives together as special as I can. For a king never compromises for the sake of his queen." He assured her.  
The wife tilted her head with pleasant bewilderment at the husband.  
"There's one more thing, too." Kato reminded.  
"I'm still all ears..." She shook her head in agreement.  
"This, all of this... It'd be remiss to not acknowledge the implications present." He asserted.  
"What implications?" She squinted her eyes.  
"Remember..." Kato looked at his timekeeper again. "... Six years ago when I said I might not ever be ready for the next stage? I never explicitly said it was about marriage, which was why we married. But... It really is such a word. But I never said it was the same case for parenthood either."  
Yada widened her eyes one more time.  
"I'm not there just yet. But I'm arriving as fast as I can. And I can promise you that if you're still gunning for it... I'll get there." Kato assured her.  
Overwhelmed by emotion, she snuggled into his chest endearingly, which prompted Kato to overlap it with his own forehead. They then met left hands again, bringing their custom wedding bands next to each other once more.  
Their month-long trip across the world was uneventful compared to their usual routines, but no less impactful. Wildlife touring in Madagascar, skydiving in Rio de Janeiro, and Nordic Viking LARPing in Stockholm were among the many attractions. More importantly, though, they always remembered to leave the phones in the drawers, so that all of that outside world was in the back of the mind. But the crown royal for them was a watch of the red-crowned cranes in Japan's largest prefecture. Seeing firsthand the courtship process for the country's marquee threatened species, needless to say, got them in an endorphin high.   
But when all good things had to come to an end...  
Kato and Yada finished their latest kiss on the runway of the same Tokyo airfield they arrived in earlier.   
"You know by now that me, Kazuhiro, and Nakanishi are not going to stop fighting down here while you, Miho, and the rest are out there, so I'm not going to assure you of it today." Yada noted.  
"No... I was already very sure of it, because you haven't ever lost." Kato reiterated.   
"Well, I could say the same for you?" Yada grinned. "I admit, I'm going to miss this a little more than last time." She remarked.  
"We've lived through it before; we can do it again. As long as we remain strong for each other." Kato reminded.  
"Indeed." Yada slowly nodded. "So, where are you going now? Who's the unlucky bad guy?"  
"A couple corps of Malaysian separatists have taken over a maximum-security correctional facility in Borneo. Some sort of tip in the Thai radios. Me, Walsh, Miho, Satoshi, Peja, and Chevrier intend to teach them a lesson before they threaten the borders on the island." Kato tilted his head. "How about you?" He inquired.  
Yada looked away with some concentration. "More talks from concerned public officials about our weapons. Would be alright if they could keep the debate fresh, but they seem to think the same argument will eventually give results in their favor. Aside from that, acquisition of Claw Tactical and Zeta Delta would bring some more indies into our mix and warm us into the Far West's good graces. It'll be some good fun, but it won't beat yours." Yada exposited.  
"I say different. Maybe we can trade?" He considered.   
Yada giggled. "I can't let you have more fun somewhere else, otherwise I won't have a cheer-up job next time you pop up." She joked.  
"Ah, I don't want to prevent those..." Kato rubbed his chin. "Very well, our objectives stand."  
"Not for long." Yada suggested.  
"See you soon." Kato nodded.   
"I'll be waiting." Yada waved goodbye.  
And that's how they closed the chapter on this leg of the book they've helped to write. A promise to be more of the person the other hopes they can be, and insurance that the world the other helped create stays that way. Neither couldn't have known five years ago that what they were brewing in Fukuoka would come to this... But there is nothing of the unknown, least of all fear, for it; only joy at its discovery.  
One and a half years later...  
Yada, in her white-black Lykan Hypersport supercar, drives into her loft's garage, as a part of her route back home after a good, long day at work from KAM. She pulled out her key to unlock the door, but upon turning realizes that the lock was already disengaged. Realizing this, she then looks up on the top of the door sill, finding a wisteria pin. Realizing that this meant Kato was the intruder, she immediately returned her smile and opened the door to greet him. But all she saw was darkness. "Kato?" She fully stepped inside. "Where are you? Resting up? I wouldn't blame you; you don't have to remind me of that." She acknowledged, continuing to scan her penthouse, noticing Kato's discarded Kimber Mk. III pistols and Microtech OTF knives. She then walked past one hallway threshold, and finally found Kato, who audibly took a sip from a rocks glass of Suntory whiskey. "Kato, what's with you, not claiming to hear me when I know you can? It's great to see you and all, but we don't have to play the ghost-person act anymore; everyone we want to know we're something already knows." She argued.  
Then the pivoting couch turned around.   
Yada's eyes quickly widened, absolutely terrified at what she witnesses.  
  


# 終わり！？

# The End...?!

# ...

# あなたはまだ加藤和彦の最後を見ていません。

# You still have not seen the last of Kazuhiko Kato.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes another benchmark for the Assassination University Saga! But of course, there's more to go! If you also follow me on DA, you will know the title of the next story, and that in a couple weeks I will publish the first chapter there. Since I anticipate this part to be a little longer than King's Gambit (if not much more), I will probably put two months into it before beginning to add it to here on AO3, rather than wait until it's all done like I've been doing for this and BnHALT.
> 
> Speaking of, in the meantime, you can expect weekly imports of BnHALT now that King's Gambit is done! Thank you all for continuing to read my works, and see you next time! 
> 
> \- Azure ;)


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